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Louis Jacobson
By Louis Jacobson December 20, 2017

Corporate rate drops to 21 percent, but not all the way to 15 percent

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump said he would reduce key tax rates for corporations, aiming to make the United States more competitive with its overseas competitors.

"The Trump Plan will lower the business tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, and eliminate the corporate alternative minimum tax," he said in his campaign tax plan.

On Dec. 19 and 20, the Senate and the House passed a final version of the tax bill, which will go to the president for his signature. Let's take a look at how the final bill treated corporate taxation.

The bill did reduce the corporate tax rate dramatically, but it didn't hit the 15 percent target Trump had proposed. The new rate is 21 percent.

Meanwhile, the bill does get rid of the corporate alternative minimum tax, which is levied against companies that have unusually low tax bills due to extensive deductions.

The bill achieved a significant corporate tax reduction -- the final figure is two-thirds of the way down to where Trump had wanted it -- but it isn't as low as his promised 15 percent. So we rate this a Compromise.

Our Sources

By Allison Colburn October 11, 2017

Proposed corporate, small business tax rates don’t fall to 15 percent

President Donald Trump promised during his campaign to cap the corporate tax rate at 15 percent from its current maximum rate of 35 percent.

Now in office, he might settle for something in between.

The White House's 2017 tax code framework — which was put together by the Trump administration, the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance — proposes cutting the corporate tax rate to 20 percent.

Also included in the plan is a new provision that would limit the maximum tax rate on income earned by "small businesses" (defined in the framework as sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations with no more than 100 shareholders).

These businesses, often referred to as "pass-through entities," currently do not pay corporate taxes. Rather, the profits "pass through" the business and are taxed at individual rates, which do not exceed 39.6 percent.

The framework calls for capping the tax rate of income earned by pass-through businesses at 25 percent. Trump's original plan was to also tax these types of businesses at a 15 percent rate. (His campaign's tax plan is archived here.)

In May, the Tax Policy Center estimated a 10-year federal revenue loss of between $390 billion and $660 billion if the United States cut the rate for pass-through income taxes to 25 percent. Between 85 and 88 percent of the net tax benefit would go to the upper 1 percent of pass-through income earners, depending on whether the legislation uses a broad or narrow definition of pass-through income.

It's worth noting that Trump conducts business through more than 500 pass-through entities, according to a document obtained and published by the New York Times.

Even though his initial plan to tax all businesses, large and small, at no more than a 15 percent rate didn't quite pan out, Trump is still pushing for significant business tax cuts. It looks like he is headed for a compromise, but until we see legislation on this, we'll continue to rate this In the Works.

Our Sources

Louis Jacobson
By Louis Jacobson May 24, 2017

Cut in corporate tax rate still a Trump priority

On April 26, the Trump administration announced a plan that would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. And now, Trump has reiterated that call with the release of his fiscal 2018 budget proposal.

The administration's budget proposal would "reduce the tax rate on American businesses in order to fuel job creation and economic growth."

That's not as specific as the previous one-page summary of Trump's tax plan, but it's consistent with it.

It's worth remembering that Trump's proposed rate change would also affect businesses known as "pass-through entities" because their profits currently "pass through" the business and instead are taxed as their owner's ordinary income.

These business currently pay taxes at individual rates, which top out at 39.6 percent.

They include partnerships like law firms and investor groups, sole proprietorships, limited liability corporations (LLCs) and corporations with less than 100 shareholders. It also would include Trump's own real estate business.

Such a steep cut in the corporate tax rate would have a major effect on the federal budget. A Tax Foundation analysis of a 15 percent corporate tax rate would cut government tax revenue by $2 trillion over 10 years, or 5 percent of total revenue.

Still, there is no actual tax legislation yet to carry out Trump's priorities, and Congress will have to pass measures before Trump can sign them into law. But his decision to mention the proposal in the budget document keeps this promise at In the Works.

Our Sources

Joshua Gillin
By Joshua Gillin April 26, 2017

Trump's tax outline lowers business tax rate and kills AMT, but offers few details

Looking to cap his first 100 days in office with a major policy proposal, President Donald Trump unveiled a broad tax policy outline that would keep a campaign promise to reduce the business tax rate by more than half and get rid of a contentious income tax altogether.

On April 26, the Trump administration announced a plan that would lower the rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. His plan included getting rid of the alternative minimum tax, or AMT. Trump had pledged to do both in his tax plan, which has been taken down from Trump's site but is archived here.

The change to the business tax rate would affect not just big corporations, but every company that pays taxes through the personal income tax code, including small family-owned businesses.

"We have a once in a generation opportunity to do something big and important on taxes," White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said at the plan's official unveiling.

Trump's lowered rate changes also affect businesses known as pass-through entities, so-called because their profits currently "pass through" the business and instead are taxed as their owner's ordinary income.

These business currently pay taxes at individual rates, which top off at 39.6 percent.

They include partnerships like law firms and investor groups, sole proprietorships, limited liability corporations (LLCs) and corporations with less than 100 shareholders. It also would include Trump's own real estate business.

The plan also raises the standard individual deduction, doubles the deduction for couples and proposes lowering the repatriation tax on offshore earnings from 35 percent to 10 percent.

Income tax brackets for individual filers would be collapsed from seven to three, at tiers of 10 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent, based on an earner's income.

Along with the AMT, Trump suggests eliminating the estate tax, both of which bring in billions of dollars per year. The AMT alone was projected to bring in about $35 billion in 2017, according to the Tax Policy Center. That amounts to about 2.2 percent of all individual income tax revenue.

The outline, which lacks several details, did not include Trump's proposed $1 trillion infrastructure package, or a border adjustment tax favored by some House Republicans. It also doesn't address loopholes or raising other taxes to make up for shortfalls.

It does suggest ending most tax deductions to offset the costs of so much tax cutting. Deductions for home ownership, retirement savings and charitable giving would remain.

Such a steep cut in the corporate tax rate would have a major effect on the federal budget. A Tax Foundation analysis of a 15 percent corporate tax rate would cut government tax revenue by $2 trillion over 10 years, or 5 percent of total revenue.

The economy would have to grow by an average of 2.8 percent a year to make up the difference, the Tax Foundation analysis said. The Congressional Budget Office recently predicted average annual growth of 1.9 percent over the next decade.

"That's the unknown right now, is whether there is some sort of pay-for for any of this," Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation economist who helped Trump create the proposal, told the New York Times.

Trump promised to lower the corporate tax rate and eliminate the alternative minimum tax, and his new tax plan includes both proposals. We rate this promise In The Works.

Our Sources

Reuters, "Trump tax plan will sharply slash corporate tax rates," April 25, 2017

Congressional Budget Office, "The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2017 to 2027," January 2017

Tax Foundation, "Could Trump's Corporate Rate Cut to 15 Percent be Self-Financing?," April 25, 2017

CNBC, "President Trump weighs steep cuts to corporate tax rates, repatriated earnings," April 25, 2017

New York Times, "Trump's Tax Plan: Low Rate For Corporations, and for Companies Like His," April 25, 2017

Washington Post, "White House unveils dramatic plan to overhaul tax code in major test for Trump," April 26, 2017

DonaldJTrump.com via Internet Archive, "Tax Plan," accessed April 26, 2017

Tax Policy Center, "How much revenue does the AMT raise?," accessed April 26, 2017

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