Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Explainer: What you should know about President Trump’s tax reform plan
Explainer: What you should know about President Trump’s tax reform plan
Jan 28, 2026 11:44 PM

Yesterday the Trump administration released its tax-reform plan, which the White House is calling the “biggest individual and business tax cut in American history.” Here is what you should know about the plan:

What are the goals of the tax reform plan:

The stated goals are to:

• Grow the economy and create millions of jobs

• Simplify our burdensome tax code

• Provide tax relief to American families—especially e families

• Lower the business tax rate from one of the highest in the world to one of the lowest

What are the objective for individual taxpayer reform?

The plan promises:

• Tax relief for American families, especially e families:

• Reducing the 7 tax brackets to 3 tax brackets of 10%, 25% and 35%

• Doubling the standard deduction

• Providing tax relief for families with child and dependent care expenses

• Eliminate targeted tax breaks that mainly benefit the wealthiest taxpayers

• Protect the home ownership and charitable gift tax deductions

• Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax

• Repeal the death tax

• Repeal the 3.8% Obamacare tax that hits small businesses and investment e

How does the plan affect individual taxpayers?

The effect on individual taxpayers would vary widely, depending on numerous factors.

For example, the plan promises to reduce the tax brackets to 10 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent, but doesn’t say who would fall into those categories. When asked about it at the roll-out briefing, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn called such information a “micro-detail.”

The standard deduction would double from $6,300 to $12,600 for single individuals and from $12,600 to $24,000 for married couples. The effect of this increase is unclear since it will be offset by a reduction in other tax deductions (deductions for home ownership, charitable giving, and retirement savings would remain while all other tax benefits would be eliminated). For example, if you live in a city or state with a high local or state tax you’d no longer be able to deduct those taxes from your federal tax bill. But a married couple earning $24,000 would benefit the most since they would no longer pay not tax at all.

While some people will benefit from the new standard deduction, other middle class taxpayers will end up paying more. As Forbes contributor Tony Nitti explains:

[T]he plan would increase the standard deduction from $12,600 to $24,000 ($12,000 if single), and eliminate personal exemptions.

So if you’re scoring at home, a family of five that currently claims the standard deduction will actuallylosedeductions under the Trump plan. Under current law, they would be entitled to a $12,600 standard deduction and $20,250 of personal exemptions, for a total tax benefit of $32,850. Under this latest proposal, that would be replaced with a $24,000 standard deduction and no personal exemptions. That’s going to be a tough sell.

Families are promised “tax relief to help them with child and dependent care expenses.” But no details have been released on that aspect of the proposal.

The plan would also eliminate the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which affects e individuals and couples, and the estate tax, which affects only about 5,000 tax returns but generates $19.7 billion in taxes. Additionally, the plan would also repeal the 3.8 percent Obamacare tax on dividends and capital gains.

What are the objective for business tax reform?

The reform plan for businesses contains four elements:

• 15 percent business tax rate

• Territorial tax system to level the playing field for panies

• One-time tax on trillions of dollars held overseas

• Eliminate tax breaks for special interests

How does the plan affect individual businesses?

The plan would reduce the federal tax on all business e from 35 percent to 15 percent. This would affect not only corporations (C corporations) but also small businesses that are structured as partnerships or S Corporations.

The plan also includes a one-time tax on overseas profits. This is estimated to bring in an additional one-time total of $250 billion, which the administration wants to use for its infrastructure spending.

The other items are still too vague to know how they would affect businesses.

Why are so few details listed in the plan?

The “plan” is more of an outline with the details to be filled in at a later date. As the plan notes in the “process” section:

Throughout the month of May, the Trump Administration will hold listening sessions with stakeholders to receive their input and will continue working with the House and Senate to develop the details of a plan that provides massive tax relief, creates jobs, and makes America petitive—and can pass both chambers.”

How would this plan affect the deficit?

Because this plan includes only tax cuts and no offsets in spending, the effect would be an estimated increase in the deficit of between $2-7 trillion over the next decade.

How does this plan differ from the proposal outlined by President Trump during the campaign?

The new plan includes five items that Trump promised on the campaign trail: reducing the tax brackets, increasing the standard deduction, reducing business tax to 15 percent, and eliminating the AMT and estate tax.

However, Trump’s campaign plan promised to be “revenue neutral” (i.e., would not increase the deficit), a claim which few economists outside of the White House believes is possible.

What are the chances that this plan is fully implemented?

Near zero. Many individual taxpayers will balk at the removal of their itemized deductions, and Republicans in Congress will not want to support a plan that leads to such substantial increases in the deficit.

While Congress will likely pass some elements, there isn’t much chance President Trump will be able to get all of the items on his tax reform wish list.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
What started the tradition of Christmas presents?
Every year we hear the same laments about Christmas presents. Economists are fond of saying gift-giving is inefficient and wasteful, while many plain that it is driven mercialism. But how did the tradition start? How did the idea of gift-giving at Christmas move from the marketplace to the home? In this short video, Ryan Reeves explains the history of Christmas presents. ...
Calvin Coolidge on the spiritual power of Christmas
In his many addresses to the nation, President Calvin Coolidge made a point of routinely redirecting the country’s attention to the “things of the spirit.” In his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, he encouraged the country to reorient its vision of abundance, progressing not only in material prosperity, but also “in moral and spiritual things.” In hisreflections on the Declaration of Independence, he reminded us that ours is a liberty not meant for “pagan materialism,” which would surely turn our prosperity into...
What you should know about wage subsidies
Note: This is post #14 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. What’s the difference between a wage subsidy and a minimum wage? What is the cost of a wage subsidy to taxpayers? Economist Alex Tabarrok looks at the earned e tax credit and how it affects low-skilled workers. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video...
Some thoughts for Pope Francis on his 80th birthday
This past Saturday, Pope Francis celebrated his 80th birthday and in an opinion piece for The Detroit News on the same day Acton Director of Research Samuel Gregg expressed his primary criticism of the Holy Father. Gregg thinks that “rather than presenting the Catholic faith in all its fullness as the source of truth and true happiness, he focuses almost exclusively on the theme of mercy.” Gregg explains himself: Mercy is certainly central to the Christian Gospel. As a priest...
After the Cairo bombing, the West must stand with the Coptic Church
It has been just over a week since a suicide bomber entered the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the Coptic Orthodox plex in Cairo, killing himself and making martyrs of 27 Egyptian Christians. They were mostly women and children attending the Sunday morning service. Two months before, the Anglican Archbishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, addressing a conference in Cairo, had called for Christians to be “ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Christ.” This has certainly...
Explainer: Christmas 2016 by the Numbers
As the most widely observed cultural holiday in the world, Christmas produces many things—joy, happiness, gratitude, reverence. And numbers. Lots of peculiar, often large, numbers. Here are a few to contemplate this season: $50.82– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on real Christmas trees in 2015. $69.38– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on fake Christmas trees in 2015. 33,000,000 – Number of real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. each year. 9,500,000 – Number of fake Christmas trees sold each year....
Radio Free Acton: David LaRocca on Brunello Cucinelli’s new philosophy of clothes
On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we speak with David LaRocca,director of a new documentary calledBrunello Cucinelli: A New Philosophy of Clothes. Brunello Cucinelli is an entrepreneur based in Solomeo, Italy and a rising star in the world of high fashion. While that may be interesting in and of itself, what is far more interesting are the ideas that animate Cucinelli and shape the way he conducts his business and relates to his employees, customers, munity. LaRocca’s documentary reveals...
The economics of Bedford Falls (Part 3 of 3)
[Note: This is the finalpost in a series highlighting some of the financial aspects and broad economic lessons of Frank Capra’s holiday classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. You can find part one hereand part two here.] Economist Don Boudreaux recently outlined ten foundational lessons that should be learned in every well-taught principles of economics course. Examples of nearly all of the ten lessons can be found in Capra’s Christmas classic, but for the sake of brevity I’ll merely highlight two...
Is ‘fair trade’ fair?
Most consumers have heard of fair-trade coffee, but have no idea how fair-trade actually works. In this video, economist Victor Claarcovers the basics of the fair-trade model, and explores whether fair trade can deliver on its promises to help the poor. Fair trade can also be used to vividly illustrate many key concepts in a principles of micro class, note s Claar, such as price elasticity and monopoly power. ...
The Last Supper and new life
“Succumbing to despair is by definition never a winning strategy, which is why the story of Giorgio Vasari’s painting, ‘The Last Supper,’ resonated so strongly with me when I read it had been successfully restored,” says Rev. Robert A. Sirico in this week’s Acton Commentary. I’ve loved Vasari since discovering his “Lives of the Artists” when I was in college, and the restoration of his work (not to be confused with the more famous Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci)...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved