Here Are All the Promises Trump Has Made About Taxes if He’s Re-Elected

Full details about former President Donald Trump’s tax policies if re-elected are forthcoming.

However, public policy watchdogs like the Tax Foundation predict Trump is likely to maintain his tax policies. Trump’s tax policies generally trended towards reducing tax liabilities and simplifying the tax code. 

Using a proprietary model, Tax Foundation researchers concluded that if Trump made his 2017 tax reforms permanent, it would boost long-run GDP by 1.2 percent, capital stock by 1.1 percent, wages by 0.4 percent, and produce 926,000 full-time jobs. 

GOBankingRates examined Trump’s tax positions. Here are all the promises Trump has made about taxes if he’s re-elected.

The centerpiece of Trump’s tax plan is making his comprehensive tax reforms permanent. The plan is known as the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) or the “Trump Tax Cuts.” 

The Act lowered individual income tax rates across most brackets and adjusted the income ranges for each bracket. For example, the law nearly doubled the standard deduction to $12,000 for single filers and $24,000 for married couples filing jointly. 

It also eliminated personal exemptions while doubling the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child, with up to $1,400 being refundable. 

“The tax cuts would decrease federal tax revenue by $4.3 trillion on a conventional basis and by $3.6 trillion on a dynamic basis,” Tax Foundation researchers said. “That reduction in revenue would come over a decade when the federal government is already projected to run deficits totaling $22 trillion.

Trump would continue a provision in his 2017 tax reform policy that expanded the use of 529 savings plans, which parents normally use to save for their children’s higher education, to include K-12 private school tuition. 

In his 2017 tax reforms, Trump also repealed the deduction for alimony payments for divorces finalized after 2018 and made alimony income non-taxable for recipients.

The “Trump Tax Plan” capped local and state income tax deductions at $10,000 and limited the mortgage interest deduction to the first $750,000 of mortgage debt. 

Employees with incentive stock options wouldn’t have to pay the additional Alternative Minimum Tax liability, making these stock options more attractive.

Trump has vowed to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare.” One step was to eliminate the penalty for not having health insurance. The measure was part of Trump’s 2017 tax reforms. 

Trump would permanently reduce the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%.

In addition, Trump introduced a 20% deduction for qualified business income from pass-through entities like partnerships, S-corporations, and sole proprietorships. 

Businesses would also be allowed to immediately expense certain capital investments instead of depreciating them over time.

Trump proposed maintaining the changes he made to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) provisions. Under the proposal, high-income earners would owe fewer taxes. 

Specifically, high-income taxpayers would no longer need to calculate their taxes under both the regular tax system and the AMT system during the filing process. In addition, taxpayers would no longer deal with the complexity associated with tracking and adjusting for line items such as stock options and other deductions that are treated differently under the Alternative Minimum Tax. 

U.S. companies that held overseas profits would be liable for a one-time tax to encourage them to invest in America. 

Trump’s tax plan also created provisions to prevent multinational corporations from avoiding paying federal taxes through profit shifting.

While President Trump doubled the estate tax exemption to $11.2 million for individuals and $22.4 million for married couples. 

Editor’s note on election coverage: GOBankingRates is nonpartisan and strives to cover all aspects of the economy objectively and present balanced reports on politically focused finance stories. You can find more coverage of this topic on GOBankingRates.com.