The IRS Is Wrong To Expand Audits of Conservation Easement Agreements
The Internal Revenue Service announced this week that it plans a “significant increase” in audits for taxpayers engaged in conservation easements. This unfortunate development continues the IRS’s disturbing pattern of harassing taxpayers that have entered into easement agreements.
The fact is, taxpayer abuse of the conservation easement deduction is few and far between. A recent analysis of cases in which the IRS took taxpayers to court over easement valuations found that over 80 percent of taxpayers’ claimed valuations were upheld.
The conservation easement deduction has existed for decades and incentivizes property owners to conserve land and historic sites by offering a charitable deduction. In order to claim the deduction, the taxpayer must agree to restrict their right to develop or alter the property. Organizations known as land trusts agree to monitor the restrictions placed on the property.
The taxpayer typically can deduct up to 50 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) in any given year and carry forward any unused deductions for up to 15 years.
Bipartisan Congressional majorities have consistently reaffirmed the conservation easement deduction. Congress initially codified the provision in 1976 and extended the provision in 1977. It was then made permanent in the Tax Treatment and Extension Act of 1980. In 2006, Congress narrowed the definition of conservation easements and expanded the deduction to 50 percent of AGI. In 2015, Congress made the expansion permanent.
Despite this clear Congressional intent, the IRS has recently subjected taxpayers to unnecessary scrutiny over the deduction. In late 2016, the Obama IRS issued Notice 2017-10, which made partnership donations of conservation easements “listed transactions.” This subjected taxpayers to burdensome new filing requirements and onerous compliance costs. The IRS has also taken taxpayers to court over easement deductions, routinely challenging a tax benefit that Congress has expressly provided without evidence of taxpayer abuse.
It is unfortunate that the IRS has decided to move forward and subject taxpayers that utilize the deduction to more scrutiny. Moving forward, if lawmakers and the IRS want to reform the deduction, they should do so through the proper legislative process and ensure that existing easements are protected. This means rejecting any retroactive disallowance of the easement deduction given that it would punish taxpayers for decisions already taken and would undermine confidence in the tax code.
Photo Credit: Tim Evanson
Fact Check: Mark Zandi Misleads Americans, Claims Warren’s Healthcare Plan Will Not Raise Middle Class Taxes
Elizabeth Warren adviser Mark Zandi wrote a CNN Op-Ed on Wednesday claiming that Warren’s Medicare for All plan “won’t raise taxes on the middle class,” but failed to point out that he previously stated that Warren would repeal the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to finance the $52 trillion plan. Such repeal would impose steep tax increases on the middle class.
In the CNN op-ed, Zandi said that Warren “supports repealing Trump's tax cuts for high-income households to generate even more revenue for her plans.”
However, Zandi directly contradicts his letter to Warren on how to finance Medicare for All, when he helped write the following:
“You have identified two changes to corporate taxation that we estimate would generate $2.9 trillion in revenue between 2020 and 2029. These estimates assume the repeal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), which you have previously proposed.”
Warren took that suggestion and put it in her Medicare for All plan, which was released on November 1.
“Next, we can make some basic changes to ensure that large corporations pay their fair share and to fix some fundamental problems with our current approach that actually encourage companies to shift jobs and investment overseas. These changes will generate an estimated $2.9 trillion over the next ten years,” the Warren plan says.
In Zandi’s Op-Ed, he fails to acknowledge that Warren does, in fact, support repealing the entire TCJA, which would result in a massive middle class tax increase.
If Warren repealed the Trump Republican tax cuts:
-A family of four earning the median income of $73,000 would be stuck paying$2,000 more in taxes each and every year.
-A single parent with one child making $41,000 would pay $1,300 more in taxes each and every year.
Warren said in a campaign video that her plan “doesn’t raise middle class taxes by one penny” however, a repeal of the TCJA would include a guaranteed tax increase on the middle class.
CNN themselves even clearly stated that Warren would repeal the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, having an adverse effect on middle class Americans.
“And, buried in the footnotes of the proposal is the assumption that these earnings would be taxed at higher marginal income tax rates due to the full repeal of the 2017 Republican tax cuts. The law reduced the top rate, which benefited the wealthy, but it also lowered other rates, which helped a large share of the middle class.”
In addition, Warren has already said that she’d use the money from reversing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to fund her climate plan.
The facts are, thanks to the Trump Republican tax cuts, middle class Americans received a tax cut. If you don’t believe us, just ask the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and FactCheck.org:
- CNN: “The facts are, most Americans got a tax cut.”
- CNN: "In fact, estimates from both sides of the political spectrum show that the majority of people in the United States of America did receive a tax cut."
- New York Times: "Most people got a tax cut."
- Washington Post: “Most Americans received a tax cut.”
- FactCheck.org: "Most people got some kind of tax cut in 2018 as a result of the law."
- FactCheck.org: "The vast majority (82 percent) of middle-income earners — those with income between about $49,000 and $86,000 — received a tax cut that averaged about $1,050.
- New York Times also noted the “sustained — and misleading — effort by liberal opponents of the law to brand it as a broad middle-class tax increase.”
- CBS News 60 Minutes: “Trump did give the middle class a tax cut.”
Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:
- A family of four earning the median income of $73,000 saw a$2,000 tax cut.
- A single parent (with one child) making $41,000 got a $1,300 tax cut.
- Millions of low and middle-income households are no longer stuck paying the Obamacare individual mandate tax.
- Utility bills across all 50 states went down as a direct result of the TCJA’s corporate income tax rate reduction.
- Small businesses saw a tax decrease because of the 20% deduction for small business income.
- Taxes went down in every state and every congressional district.
Stay up-to-date on Democrat tax hike threats at www.atr.org/HighTaxDems.
See more:
Warren: Medicare for All Covers Illegal Immigrants
Elizabeth Warren Contradicts Herself on Taxes, Again
Biden: Imagine if I Told Elizabeth Warren ‘You Should Be In a Socialist Primary’
CNN Catches Warren in a Tax Lie
Bernie Sanders: Warren’s Medicare for All Plan Would Have “Very Negative Impact” on Jobs and Wages
Warren’s “Medicare for All” Repeals Trump Tax Cuts
Biden: Warren is "Making it Up" on How She'll Pay for Medicare For All
Biden: “It’s Impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle class tax increases”
Biden Slams Medicare for All: “It’s Totally Unrealistic and Can’t be Done”
Warren: Two Million Lost Jobs from Medicare for All “Part of the Cost Issue”
Video Showing Every Time Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
Out of touch Biden calls Trump’s $2,000 middle class tax cut “negligible”
Biden Calls for 28% Corporate Tax Rate
Biden: “Every Single Solitary Person” Will Pay 40% Capital Gains Tax
Warren Dodges the Middle Class Tax Question Again
Buttigieg Says He Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 35%
Watch: CNN Analyst Gets Visibly Irritated as Warren Dodges Tax Hike Question
Andrew Yang to Elizabeth Warren: Wealth Tax Would Have “Massive Implementation Problems”
Biden on Warren Dodging Middle Class Tax Question: “This is Ridiculous. Absolutely Ridiculous.”
Buttigieg Grills Warren for Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: I Will Raise the Capital Gains Tax to 39.5%
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Stop Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: 17 Times Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: Warren Keeps Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: “I’m Gonna Double the Capital Gains Rate to 40%”
Tax Hike Bernie Says He’ll Tax All Income Over $29K
Video: Warren Dodges Middle Class Tax Question Again
Biden Calls for Full Repeal of Trump Tax Cuts
Biden Attacks Warren: "She's Going to Raise People's Taxes”
Video: Media Fed Up with Elizabeth Warren Tax Dodge
Biden: End "Trump's Tax Cut for The Top Tenth of One Percent"
Booker: “My plan would reverse those toxic Trump tax cuts”
Stephen Colbert Calls Out Warren for Dodging Middle Class Tax Question
Video: Warren Dodges MSNBC’s Middle Class Tax Questions
Elizabeth Warren is Still Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Video: 2020 Democrats Promise Higher Taxes
Biden Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
Bill De Blasio: “As President, I Would Issue a Robot Tax”
Kamala Harris Calls for Ban on Plastic Straws
Elizabeth Warren's Climate Plan Calls For "Reversing" GOP Tax Cuts
Sanders: We’re Going to “Absolutely” Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Elizabeth Warren on Corporate Tax Cuts: “I really want to see them rolled back.”
Bill de Blasio Calls for Corporate Tax Rate Hike
Amy Klobuchar: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate to 25%
Biden on capital gains tax: “We should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent”
Kamala Harris Threatens to Repeal GOP Tax Cuts 3 Times in August
Joe Biden: “I’m going to eliminate most all” of GOP Tax Cuts
Cory Booker Calls for Repeal of "Toxic" GOP Tax Cuts
Marianne Williamson Joins Dems Calling for TCJA Repeal
Kamala Admits Her Plan Would End Employer Insurance
“Medicare for All” is a Middle Class Tax Increase, Say Dems
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Dodge the Middle Class Tax Question Forever
Dem Socialized Healthcare Plan Will Lead to Middle Class Tax Hikes
Supposed “Moderate” Democrat John Delaney Wants to Impose Carbon Tax on the American People
Klobuchar Suggests Capital Gains Tax Hike and “Doing Something” About TCJA
VIDEO: 2020 Democrats Will Raise Your Taxes
Kamala Harris Campaign Headquarters Located in Opportunity Zone Created by GOP Tax Cuts
Julian Castro: “We’re going to have to raise taxes.”
Biden and Harris: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Biden tweet: Ignore the fact I’ve already called for middle class tax hikes
Kamala Harris: “I Will Reverse” Trump’s Tax Cuts
Kamala Harris Calls for Repeal of Tax Cuts Four Times in Three Minutes
Julian Castro Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
NYT: Bidencare Will be Funded by “rolling back” GOP tax cuts
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal “That Tax Bill”
Cory Booker: “I do support” Imposing Carbon Tax on Americans
Harris: “We are Going to Repeal That Tax Bill”
Biden: I Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 28%
Kamala Harris Continues to Lie about Tax Cuts
Jay Inslee: “Repeal the Trump Tax Cuts”
Biden Running Ads to “Repeal Trump’s Tax Cuts.”
VIDEO: Ten Times Biden Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Here’s what happens if Dems repeal tax cuts
VIDEO: 10 Times 2020 Democrats Have Threatened to Repeal TCJA
Kamala Harris: When I Enter Office "I Will Repeal" the TCJA
Biden: “First thing I would do as President is Eliminate the President’s Tax Cut.”
Bernie Sanders claims people would be “delighted to pay more in taxes”
Biden: Tax Cuts Will be “Gone” If I’m Elected
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal Tax Cuts “on day one”
Biden again says capital gains tax is “Much too Low”
Biden: Capital gains tax “much too low”
VIDEO: Five Times Biden has Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Biden: “First thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.”
Joe Biden broke his middle class tax pledge
“Mayor Pete” Calls for Steep Tax Hike on Homes and Businesses
Kamala Harris Vows Repeal of Tax Cuts “on Day One”
Biden: “When I’m President, if God willing I am, we’re going to reverse those Trump tax cuts.”
Photo Credit: Third Way Think Tank/Flickr
Congress Should Reject Additional Online Sales Restrictions for Adults Who Buy E-Cigarettes
This week, the Senate will consider legislation sponsored by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) that would both prohibit the United States Postal Service from shipping electronic cigarettes and vapor products to adults and increase the cost of the products delivered by other companies. These bills will have a significant impact on millions of adults who rely on the availability of vapor products purchased online to quit smoking cigarettes.
Currently, services like Veratad and Age Checker verify a consumer's age online with third party databases to ensure that they are consistent with the information the government has on age to purchase laws. Some of these services further require you to upload a photo ID already, making a new federally mandated point of delivery age verification both unnecessary and additionally costly. This legislation will result in adult consumers being forced to pay several dollars more each time they have e-cigarettes shipped to their homes, a needless government action that will result in fewer smokers transitioning to e-cigarettes, which are 95% less harmful than cigarettes.
Teens who are not of the legal age to vape (those under the age of 18-21, depending on the state) are currently prohibited from purchasing nicotine vapor products online, a policy aggressively enforced by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA both monitors and enforces against online businesses that do not check age at the time of purchase or when you access the sales portion of a website that sells e-cigarettes. There is not an online loophole that allows underage consumers to purchase vapor products online.
FDA data conclusively points to social sources like friends or family being the way that teens get access to e-cigarettes, not online sales. This bill does not address the stated concerns of proponents of the legislation.
The Senate should reject this legislation because it will raise costs on adult consumers and may result in fewer people choosing to use reduced risk alternatives to cigarettes.
More from Americans for Tax Reform
Ron Johnson Letter to Trump: A Flavored Vape Ban Would Harm Public Health and Wipe Out Small Businesses Nationwide
"I am strongly opposed to far-reaching, unchecked government action that stifles innovation and restricts adults’ freedom to choose safer alternatives to smoking."
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson today sent a letter to President Donald Trump noting the important role flavored vaping products play in helping adults quit smoking combustible cigarettes. He also noted a flavored vape ban would wipe out thousands of small businesses and kill jobs.
The full Johnson letter is below:
Dear Mr. President:
Recent reports indicate that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will issue guidance restricting the sale of certain e-cigarette flavors, which could have a devastating effect on the e-cigarette industry and force many small businesses to shut down.
The costs of a ban on most e-cigarette flavors will almost certainly be substantial. Many stakeholders in the e-cigarette industry are small businesses—over 10,000 according to some estimates —so an outright ban on the most popular flavors purchased by adults will likely force them to close. The closure of these small businesses, including the loss of thousands of jobs, could essentially destroy this estimated $9 billion industry.
Although major restrictions on the sale of e-cigarette flavors will have a significant financial impact on this industry, reporting indicates that the guidance under review at FDA and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) was designated as not “economically significant.” The “economically significant” designation, which applies to any action that is likely to have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more, ensures a thorough review by both the FDA and OIRA of the costs and benefits.
Aside from the significant monetary costs of the flavor restrictions, there is also a significant cost to the public health. Many adults have quit smoking by switching to e-cigarettes, a product that is 95 percent less harmful according to Public Health England, and they rely on flavors that this guidance threatens to restrict or make harder for them to obtain. If former smokers cannot access products that they have used to kick the habit, they could very well return to less healthy alternatives like smoking cigarettes or purchasing illicit products on the black market. That outcome would be a public health disaster.
Under your leadership, the regulatory burden faced by businesses has been greatly reduced. You have successfully implemented policies that reduce government interference in the private sector and help small businesses flourish. Further, you have also led much-needed efforts to stop federal agencies’ use of guidance documents to circumvent the formal rulemaking process. However, a costly guidance document from the FDA restricting e-cigarette flavors would be inconsistent with those significant achievements.
I am supportive of regulations that ensure the safety of consumer products, and common-sense efforts that prevent youth access to e-cigarettes. But I am strongly opposed to far-reaching, unchecked government action that stifles innovation and restricts adults’ freedom to choose safer alternatives to smoking. As your administration finalizes this anticipated guidance, I respectfully urge you to consider to the long-term costs and public health consequences this type of policy could have on Americans.
Sincerely,
Ron Johnson
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
See also: If you don't understand the power of the flavored vape issue, watch this video
See also: Vape flavor ban will devastate Main Street businesses nationwide
See also: Vape ban could swing election against Trump
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Warren: Medicare for All Covers Illegal Immigrants
Elizabeth Warren said that Medicare for all would cover “everyone,” including illegal immigrants, during a forum hosted by an advocacy organization on Friday.
Warren: “Medicare for All, as I put this together, covers everyone, regardless of immigration status.”
According to The Pew Research Center there are 10.5 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.
Warren has previously come under fire from other Democratic candidates over her Medicare for All plan. Joe Biden and other candidates have pointed out her plan will raise taxes on the middle class.
Biden’s campaign said that Warren “has been lowballing the cost” of her Medicare for All plan, calling middle class tax increases “inevitable.”
“Senator Warren has spent months dodging questions about how she’d need to raise taxes on the American middle class in order to pay for her single payer health care plan, and on Friday she confirmed why: because it would,” his campaign said.
The plan also repeals the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as ATR noted, which would come with a guaranteed tax increase for middle class Americans.
Even Bernie Sanders, who “wrote the damn bill,” as he likes to say, admits that middle class taxes would go up under Medicare for All.
"Yeah, [we'd have to] raise taxes on the middle class," Sanders told a CNN reporter after the July debate.
Warren has continuously dodged the middle class tax question, and tried to dodge it for a total of 28 times, as Americans for Tax Reform has documented.
As the Washington Post reported, Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the health policy department at Emory University directly said that the plan will hit the middle class. “There’s no question it hits the middle class,” he said.
Stay up-to-date on Democrat tax hike threats at www.atr.org/HighTaxDems.
See more:
Elizabeth Warren Contradicts Herself on Taxes, Again
Biden: Imagine if I Told Elizabeth Warren ‘You Should Be In a Socialist Primary’
CNN Catches Warren in a Tax Lie
Bernie Sanders: Warren’s Medicare for All Plan Would Have “Very Negative Impact” on Jobs and Wages
Warren’s “Medicare for All” Repeals Trump Tax Cuts
Biden: Warren is "Making it Up" on How She'll Pay for Medicare For All
Biden: “It’s Impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle class tax increases”
Biden Slams Medicare for All: “It’s Totally Unrealistic and Can’t be Done”
Warren: Two Million Lost Jobs from Medicare for All “Part of the Cost Issue”
Video Showing Every Time Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
Out of touch Biden calls Trump’s $2,000 middle class tax cut “negligible”
Biden Calls for 28% Corporate Tax Rate
Biden: “Every Single Solitary Person” Will Pay 40% Capital Gains Tax
Warren Dodges the Middle Class Tax Question Again
Buttigieg Says He Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 35%
Watch: CNN Analyst Gets Visibly Irritated as Warren Dodges Tax Hike Question
Andrew Yang to Elizabeth Warren: Wealth Tax Would Have “Massive Implementation Problems”
Biden on Warren Dodging Middle Class Tax Question: “This is Ridiculous. Absolutely Ridiculous.”
Buttigieg Grills Warren for Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: I Will Raise the Capital Gains Tax to 39.5%
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Stop Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: 17 Times Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: Warren Keeps Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: “I’m Gonna Double the Capital Gains Rate to 40%”
Tax Hike Bernie Says He’ll Tax All Income Over $29K
Video: Warren Dodges Middle Class Tax Question Again
Biden Calls for Full Repeal of Trump Tax Cuts
Biden Attacks Warren: "She's Going to Raise People's Taxes”
Video: Media Fed Up with Elizabeth Warren Tax Dodge
Biden: End "Trump's Tax Cut for The Top Tenth of One Percent"
Booker: “My plan would reverse those toxic Trump tax cuts”
Stephen Colbert Calls Out Warren for Dodging Middle Class Tax Question
Video: Warren Dodges MSNBC’s Middle Class Tax Questions
Elizabeth Warren is Still Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Video: 2020 Democrats Promise Higher Taxes
Biden Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
Bill De Blasio: “As President, I Would Issue a Robot Tax”
Kamala Harris Calls for Ban on Plastic Straws
Elizabeth Warren's Climate Plan Calls For "Reversing" GOP Tax Cuts
Sanders: We’re Going to “Absolutely” Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Elizabeth Warren on Corporate Tax Cuts: “I really want to see them rolled back.”
Bill de Blasio Calls for Corporate Tax Rate Hike
Amy Klobuchar: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate to 25%
Biden on capital gains tax: “We should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent”
Kamala Harris Threatens to Repeal GOP Tax Cuts 3 Times in August
Joe Biden: “I’m going to eliminate most all” of GOP Tax Cuts
Cory Booker Calls for Repeal of "Toxic" GOP Tax Cuts
Marianne Williamson Joins Dems Calling for TCJA Repeal
Kamala Admits Her Plan Would End Employer Insurance
“Medicare for All” is a Middle Class Tax Increase, Say Dems
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Dodge the Middle Class Tax Question Forever
Dem Socialized Healthcare Plan Will Lead to Middle Class Tax Hikes
Supposed “Moderate” Democrat John Delaney Wants to Impose Carbon Tax on the American People
Klobuchar Suggests Capital Gains Tax Hike and “Doing Something” About TCJA
VIDEO: 2020 Democrats Will Raise Your Taxes
Kamala Harris Campaign Headquarters Located in Opportunity Zone Created by GOP Tax Cuts
Julian Castro: “We’re going to have to raise taxes.”
Biden and Harris: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Biden tweet: Ignore the fact I’ve already called for middle class tax hikes
Kamala Harris: “I Will Reverse” Trump’s Tax Cuts
Kamala Harris Calls for Repeal of Tax Cuts Four Times in Three Minutes
Julian Castro Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
NYT: Bidencare Will be Funded by “rolling back” GOP tax cuts
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal “That Tax Bill”
Cory Booker: “I do support” Imposing Carbon Tax on Americans
Harris: “We are Going to Repeal That Tax Bill”
Biden: I Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 28%
Kamala Harris Continues to Lie about Tax Cuts
Jay Inslee: “Repeal the Trump Tax Cuts”
Biden Running Ads to “Repeal Trump’s Tax Cuts.”
VIDEO: Ten Times Biden Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Here’s what happens if Dems repeal tax cuts
VIDEO: 10 Times 2020 Democrats Have Threatened to Repeal TCJA
Kamala Harris: When I Enter Office "I Will Repeal" the TCJA
Biden: “First thing I would do as President is Eliminate the President’s Tax Cut.”
Bernie Sanders claims people would be “delighted to pay more in taxes”
Biden: Tax Cuts Will be “Gone” If I’m Elected
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal Tax Cuts “on day one”
Biden again says capital gains tax is “Much too Low”
Biden: Capital gains tax “much too low”
VIDEO: Five Times Biden has Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Biden: “First thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.”
Joe Biden broke his middle class tax pledge
“Mayor Pete” Calls for Steep Tax Hike on Homes and Businesses
Kamala Harris Vows Repeal of Tax Cuts “on Day One”
Biden: “When I’m President, if God willing I am, we’re going to reverse those Trump tax cuts.”
Elizabeth Warren Contradicts Herself on Taxes, Again
Elizabeth Warren contradicted herself on what she has previously said about how she’ll fund Medicare for All during an event last Thursday.
Previously, Warren said that there will be “no increases in taxes for anyone except billionaires, period. Done.”
However, she appeared to walk that back a little bit on Thursday:
Warren: “So what I propose in Medicare for All is to say, here's how we're going to start, federal government just keeps paying the same that they're doing right now, state government just keeps paying the same as they're doing right now. Employers just keep paying the same as they're paying right now. And the fourth one is that the $11 trillion, that over the next 10 years, people will, if we don't do anything, are going to be reaching their pockets to pay, that goes to zero. And the way we're going to make up that difference, is we're going to do it by increasing taxes on some of the biggest corporations and by increasing taxes on the top 1%.”
The top one percent of U.S. earners requires an household income of $421,926, according to CNBC, which is significantly less than the promise of “no increases in taxes for anyone except billionaires.”
In addition, her plan already promises to repeal the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Such a repeal would raise taxes on middle income Americans.
Even Bernie Sanders, who “wrote the damn bill,” as he likes to say, admits that middle class taxes would go up under Medicare for All.
"Yeah, [we'd have to] raise taxes on the middle class," Sanders told a CNN reporter after the July debate.
Warren has continuously dodged the middle class tax question, and tried to dodge it for a total of 28 times, as Americans for Tax Reform has documented.
As the Washington Post reported, Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the health policy department at Emory University directly said that the plan will hit the middle class. “There’s no question it hits the middle class,” he said.
Stay up-to-date on Democrat tax hike threats at www.atr.org/HighTaxDems.
See more:
Biden: Imagine if I Told Elizabeth Warren ‘You Should Be In a Socialist Primary’
CNN Catches Warren in a Tax Lie
Bernie Sanders: Warren’s Medicare for All Plan Would Have “Very Negative Impact” on Jobs and Wages
Warren’s “Medicare for All” Repeals Trump Tax Cuts
Biden: Warren is "Making it Up" on How She'll Pay for Medicare For All
Biden: “It’s Impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle class tax increases”
Biden Slams Medicare for All: “It’s Totally Unrealistic and Can’t be Done”
Warren: Two Million Lost Jobs from Medicare for All “Part of the Cost Issue”
Video Showing Every Time Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
Out of touch Biden calls Trump’s $2,000 middle class tax cut “negligible”
Biden Calls for 28% Corporate Tax Rate
Biden: “Every Single Solitary Person” Will Pay 40% Capital Gains Tax
Warren Dodges the Middle Class Tax Question Again
Buttigieg Says He Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 35%
Watch: CNN Analyst Gets Visibly Irritated as Warren Dodges Tax Hike Question
Andrew Yang to Elizabeth Warren: Wealth Tax Would Have “Massive Implementation Problems”
Biden on Warren Dodging Middle Class Tax Question: “This is Ridiculous. Absolutely Ridiculous.”
Buttigieg Grills Warren for Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: I Will Raise the Capital Gains Tax to 39.5%
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Stop Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: 17 Times Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: Warren Keeps Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: “I’m Gonna Double the Capital Gains Rate to 40%”
Tax Hike Bernie Says He’ll Tax All Income Over $29K
Video: Warren Dodges Middle Class Tax Question Again
Biden Calls for Full Repeal of Trump Tax Cuts
Biden Attacks Warren: "She's Going to Raise People's Taxes”
Video: Media Fed Up with Elizabeth Warren Tax Dodge
Biden: End "Trump's Tax Cut for The Top Tenth of One Percent"
Booker: “My plan would reverse those toxic Trump tax cuts”
Stephen Colbert Calls Out Warren for Dodging Middle Class Tax Question
Video: Warren Dodges MSNBC’s Middle Class Tax Questions
Elizabeth Warren is Still Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Video: 2020 Democrats Promise Higher Taxes
Biden Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
Bill De Blasio: “As President, I Would Issue a Robot Tax”
Kamala Harris Calls for Ban on Plastic Straws
Elizabeth Warren's Climate Plan Calls For "Reversing" GOP Tax Cuts
Sanders: We’re Going to “Absolutely” Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Elizabeth Warren on Corporate Tax Cuts: “I really want to see them rolled back.”
Bill de Blasio Calls for Corporate Tax Rate Hike
Amy Klobuchar: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate to 25%
Biden on capital gains tax: “We should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent”
Kamala Harris Threatens to Repeal GOP Tax Cuts 3 Times in August
Joe Biden: “I’m going to eliminate most all” of GOP Tax Cuts
Cory Booker Calls for Repeal of "Toxic" GOP Tax Cuts
Marianne Williamson Joins Dems Calling for TCJA Repeal
Kamala Admits Her Plan Would End Employer Insurance
“Medicare for All” is a Middle Class Tax Increase, Say Dems
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Dodge the Middle Class Tax Question Forever
Dem Socialized Healthcare Plan Will Lead to Middle Class Tax Hikes
Supposed “Moderate” Democrat John Delaney Wants to Impose Carbon Tax on the American People
Klobuchar Suggests Capital Gains Tax Hike and “Doing Something” About TCJA
VIDEO: 2020 Democrats Will Raise Your Taxes
Kamala Harris Campaign Headquarters Located in Opportunity Zone Created by GOP Tax Cuts
Julian Castro: “We’re going to have to raise taxes.”
Biden and Harris: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Biden tweet: Ignore the fact I’ve already called for middle class tax hikes
Kamala Harris: “I Will Reverse” Trump’s Tax Cuts
Kamala Harris Calls for Repeal of Tax Cuts Four Times in Three Minutes
Julian Castro Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
NYT: Bidencare Will be Funded by “rolling back” GOP tax cuts
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal “That Tax Bill”
Cory Booker: “I do support” Imposing Carbon Tax on Americans
Harris: “We are Going to Repeal That Tax Bill”
Biden: I Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 28%
Kamala Harris Continues to Lie about Tax Cuts
Jay Inslee: “Repeal the Trump Tax Cuts”
Biden Running Ads to “Repeal Trump’s Tax Cuts.”
VIDEO: Ten Times Biden Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Here’s what happens if Dems repeal tax cuts
VIDEO: 10 Times 2020 Democrats Have Threatened to Repeal TCJA
Kamala Harris: When I Enter Office "I Will Repeal" the TCJA
Biden: “First thing I would do as President is Eliminate the President’s Tax Cut.”
Bernie Sanders claims people would be “delighted to pay more in taxes”
Biden: Tax Cuts Will be “Gone” If I’m Elected
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal Tax Cuts “on day one”
Biden again says capital gains tax is “Much too Low”
Biden: Capital gains tax “much too low”
VIDEO: Five Times Biden has Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Biden: “First thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.”
Joe Biden broke his middle class tax pledge
“Mayor Pete” Calls for Steep Tax Hike on Homes and Businesses
Kamala Harris Vows Repeal of Tax Cuts “on Day One”
Biden: “When I’m President, if God willing I am, we’re going to reverse those Trump tax cuts.”
Biden: Imagine if I Told Elizabeth Warren ‘You Should Be In a Socialist Primary’
During a CNN town hall on Monday night, Joe Biden responded to Elizabeth Warren’s claim that he should be in the Republican primary, and jokingly said “Imagine if I said to her, ‘you should be in the socialist primary?’
Here’s the key exchange:
Biden: “Imagine if I said to her, ‘well, you should be in the socialist primary,’ Biden is being bu bu bu bu bum, right? You’d all say that...you know it.”
Erin Burnett: “Well, do you think she should?”
Biden: “No! I’m not going to get into a fight with her.”
Biden was responding to a remark made by Warren accusing him of “running in the wrong presidential primary.”
Joe Biden has criticized Warren’s Medicare for All plan, as his campaign said that it's "impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle class tax increases."
Even Bernie Sanders, who “wrote the damn bill,” as he likes to say, admits that middle class taxes would go up under Medicare for All.
"Yeah, [we'd have to] raise taxes on the middle class," Sanders told a CNN reporter after the July debate.
Warren has continuously dodged the middle class tax question, and tried to dodge it for a total of 28 times, as Americans for Tax Reform has documented.
As the Washington Post reported, Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the health policy department at Emory University directly said that the plan will hit the middle class. “There’s no question it hits the middle class,” he said.
To view the many tax hikes being pushed by the 2020 candidates visitwww.atr.org/HighTaxDems
Warren’s Wealth Tax Could Double the Size of the IRS
Elizabeth Warren’s proposed wealth tax could result in over 80,000 new full-time IRS agents, more than doubling the size of the IRS according to ATR analysis.
A recent report from the left-of-center Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) suggests spending $5 billion to properly enforce and administer a wealth tax.
If this money was spent exclusively on IRS employees, it would be the equivalent of 80,800 new full time agents based on the average salary of $61,800.
In FY 2018, the IRS used 73,519 full-time agents, meaning the Warren wealth tax could more than double the size of the IRS.
Even IRS lifers are admitting that the Warren wealth tax would be nearly impossible to administer. In a Bloomberg report former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said: “It would be difficult for the Service to get its arms around the wealth tax...The more money people have the more they tend to have in non-traditional assets.”
Warren’s has proposed a wealth tax starting at 2 percent on Americans with assets above $50 million and 6 percent on taxpayers with more than $1 billion in assets. According to Warren’s analysis, this tax would raise taxes on American by $3.75 trillion over ten years – an extremely ambitious estimate that assumes high-earners do not relocate elsewhere.
Warren's wealth tax would empower IRS agents to keep a list of all household assets, an extremely invasive power. The Warren wealth tax also contains a 40% "exit tax."
Even the Washington Post editorial board said this arrangement "conveys a certain authoritarian odor."
A wealth tax has failed every time it has been tried. In 1995, 15 OECD countries had a wealth tax. Today, only four still have a wealth tax: Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, and Spain. The 11 countries that repealed the wealth tax cited underwhelming revenue and extraordinary difficulty in collecting the tax as reasons for repeal.
The most recent country to repeal a wealth tax was France. The French wealth tax was imposed on assets over $1.4 million and led to an exodus of taxpayers from the country. In 2016 alone, 12,000 taxapayers left France, the highest outflow in the world. The year prior, in 2015, 10,000 millionaires left France for other countries, according to a report by New World Wealth.
The wealth tax proposed by Warren would be a nightmare to administer, would double the size of the IRS, would fail to generate revenue that supporters claim, and has failed every time it has been tried in the past.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
Four Things You Need To Know About the RSC Healthcare Plan
The Republican Study Committee recently released a framework to reform our nation’s healthcare system. The plan, entitled “A Framework for Personalized, Affordable Care,” provides a much-needed alternative to the radical government takeover of healthcare that the left is pushing.
The left’s plan, which they disingenuously call “Medicare for All,” would kick 180 million Americans off of their private coverage overnight and require $32 trillion in new taxes over the next decade. Government-run healthcare would raise taxes on every American and lead to drastic reductions in the quality of healthcare.
In contrast to this radical proposal, the RSC healthcare plan makes numerous improvements to the U.S. healthcare system that will ensure competition, access, and quality for every American.
Here are four things you need to know about the RSC’s healthcare plan.
Expands Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
HSAs are tax-advantaged savings accounts that gives patients choice and flexibility in paying for their health needs. HSAs are double-tax advantaged: the funds are not taxed when earned as income or as they accrue interest. HSAs are used in conjunction with low premium, high deductible health insurance plans and are used by over 25 million American families and individuals.
The RSC plan expands HSAs by allowing individuals to use them to pay their healthcare premiums. The RSC plan also expands the accessibility and effectiveness of HSAs by eliminating the requirement that HSAs be tied to a high-deductible plan. The plan also increases the HSA maximum contribution limit and expands the scope of eligible health care expenditures.
Importantly, the RSC plan allows working seniors and other Medicare recipients to contribute to an HSA. This will end the discrimination against working seniors who cannot be on Medicare if they choose to keep their HSA.
Expands Access to Innovative, Patient Centered Care
The RSC plan expands access to innovative care for American patients in several ways.
The framework calls for expanding direct primary care — the facetime that patients share with doctors — without raising costs. The RSC plan will allow patients to use their HSAs to pay the $60 - $70 monthly fees that fund direct primary care.
The proposal also contains reforms that allow individuals to increase their negotiation power and receive care through economies of scale. The plan promotes health sharing ministries, which allow members of nonprofits to pool their funds through monthly dues and to only fund programs for which they would need coverage.
In addition to these reforms, the RSC codifies the Trump Administration’s expansion of short-term, limited duration plans into law. These plans are useful for consumers in between jobs or with temporary gaps in coverage.
Strengthens Medicaid for Future Generations
Medicaid is on an unsustainable path. Federal spending on the program has skyrocketed from $14 billion in 1980 to a projected $702 billion in 2029. Over the next decade, Medicaid expenditures on the Medicaid expansion population alone is projected to approach $938 billion.
To streamline the program, the RSC healthcare plan calls for a moratorium on future Medicaid expansions and a phase out of the expansion’s enhanced FMAP rate. This ends the subsidization of able-bodied adults without dependents at the expense of the truly disadvantaged –– poor pregnant women, seniors, children, and the disabled.
The RSC plan also replaces Medicaid’s open-ended entitlement structure with separate per capita grants to better serve Medicaid’s traditional beneficiaries. The plan allows for Medicaid to combine the Children’s Health Insurance Program with the Medicaid grant for children. A flex-grant would also allow states to subsidize the healthcare of low-income individuals, subject to work requirements.
Protects Pre-Existing Conditions and Enhances Healthcare Portability
Healthcare portability — the ability of an individual to carry their healthcare protections with them — is a cornerstone of the RSC’s healthcare plan. Portability is essential to preventing breaks in coverage for individuals, where an individual could develop a condition that would serve as an impediment to getting reinsured.
Most importantly, portability is a protection against individuals being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. The RSC plan provides a legal framework to ensure that coverage protections are portable.
The RSC plan ensures that individuals that move from the employer marketplace to the individual marketplace do not need to exhaust COBRA coverage before entering the market with portability protections. The RSC plan also ensures that individuals seeking coverage in the individual marketplace could not be refused a plan due to health status, medical condition, claims experience, receipt of healthcare, medical history, genetic information, evidence of insurability, or disability.
Photo Credit: Güldem Üstün
CNN Catches Warren in a Tax Lie
CNN caught Elizabeth Warren lying about her promise not to raise taxes on the middle class as part of her Medicare for All plan.
CNN asked Warren’s campaign about one part of her Medicare for All plan which is “buried in the footnotes,” that would repeal the entire Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also known as the Trump Republican tax cuts.
CNN’s Tami Luhby wrote:
“And, buried in the footnotes of the proposal is the assumption that these earnings would be taxed at higher marginal income tax rates due to the full repeal of the 2017 Republican tax cuts. The law reduced the top rate, which benefited the wealthy, but it also lowered other rates, which helped a large share of the middle class. The proposal assumes marginal tax rates would rise by 2.3 percentage points.”
This is how Warren’s campaign responded:
“Warren's campaign told CNN that she only supports repealing the tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations -- not middle-class families -- and doing so would have no material effect on the revenue estimate.”
However, this is a lie, and Warren’s Medicare for All plan directly adopts her economists’ suggestion of repealing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a way to finance the $52 trillion plan.
A letter to Warren from Simon Johnson, Betsey Stevenson, and Mark Zandi states:
“You have identified two changes to corporate taxation that we estimate would generate $2.9 trillion in revenue between 2020 and 2029. These estimates assume the repeal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), which you have previously proposed, and the existence of your Real Corporate Profits Tax on very large and profitable American corporations.”
Warren took that suggestion and put it in her Medicare for All plan, which was released on November 1.
“Next, we can make some basic changes to ensure that large corporations pay their fair share and to fix some fundamental problems with our current approach that actually encourage companies to shift jobs and investment overseas. These changes will generate an estimated $2.9 trillion over the next ten years,” the Warren plan says.
CNN was right to call her out, and the Warren campaign is now in denial mode, again.
If Warren repealed the Trump Republican tax cuts:
-A family of four earning the median income of $73,000 would be stuck paying $2,000 more in taxes each and every year.
-A single parent with one child making $41,000 would pay $1,300 more in taxes each and every year.
Warren said in a campaign video that her plan “doesn’t raise middle class taxes by one penny” however, a repeal of the TCJA would include a guaranteed tax increase on the middle class.
In addition, Warren has already said that she’d use the money from reversing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to fund her climate plan.
The facts are, thanks to the Trump Republican tax cuts, middle class Americans received a tax cut. If you don’t believe us, just ask the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and FactCheck.org:
- CNN: “The facts are, most Americans got a tax cut.”
- CNN: "In fact, estimates from both sides of the political spectrum show that the majority of people in the United States of America did receive a tax cut."
- New York Times: "Most people got a tax cut."
- Washington Post: “Most Americans received a tax cut.”
- FactCheck.org: "Most people got some kind of tax cut in 2018 as a result of the law."
- FactCheck.org: "The vast majority (82 percent) of middle-income earners — those with income between about $49,000 and $86,000 — received a tax cut that averaged about $1,050.
- New York Times also noted the “sustained — and misleading — effort by liberal opponents of the law to brand it as a broad middle-class tax increase.”
- CBS News 60 Minutes: “Trump did give the middle class a tax cut.”
Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:
- A family of four earning the median income of $73,000 saw a $2,000 tax cut.
- A single parent (with one child) making $41,000 got a $1,300 tax cut.
- Millions of low and middle-income households are no longer stuck paying the Obamacare individual mandate tax.
- Utility bills across all 50 states went down as a direct result of the TCJA’s corporate income tax rate reduction.
- Small businesses saw a tax decrease because of the 20% deduction for small business income.
- Taxes went down in every state and every congressional district.
Warren will also impose additional tax hikes on low and middle income households, including a carbon tax and a 30 percent national gun tax and a 50 percent national ammo tax.
To view the many tax hikes being pushed by the 2020 candidates visit www.atr.org/HighTaxDems
See more:
Bernie Sanders: Warren’s Medicare for All Plan Would Have “Very Negative Impact” on Jobs and Wages
Warren’s “Medicare for All” Repeals Trump Tax Cuts
Biden: Warren is "Making it Up" on How She'll Pay for Medicare For All
Biden: “It’s Impossible to pay for Medicare for All without middle class tax increases”
Biden Slams Medicare for All: “It’s Totally Unrealistic and Can’t be Done”
Warren: Two Million Lost Jobs from Medicare for All “Part of the Cost Issue”
Video Showing Every Time Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
Out of touch Biden calls Trump’s $2,000 middle class tax cut “negligible”
Biden Calls for 28% Corporate Tax Rate
Biden: “Every Single Solitary Person” Will Pay 40% Capital Gains Tax
Warren Dodges the Middle Class Tax Question Again
Buttigieg Says He Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 35%
Watch: CNN Analyst Gets Visibly Irritated as Warren Dodges Tax Hike Question
Andrew Yang to Elizabeth Warren: Wealth Tax Would Have “Massive Implementation Problems”
Biden on Warren Dodging Middle Class Tax Question: “This is Ridiculous. Absolutely Ridiculous.”
Buttigieg Grills Warren for Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: I Will Raise the Capital Gains Tax to 39.5%
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Stop Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: 17 Times Elizabeth Warren Has Dodged the Middle Class Tax Question
VIDEO: Warren Keeps Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Biden: “I’m Gonna Double the Capital Gains Rate to 40%”
Tax Hike Bernie Says He’ll Tax All Income Over $29K
Video: Warren Dodges Middle Class Tax Question Again
Biden Calls for Full Repeal of Trump Tax Cuts
Biden Attacks Warren: "She's Going to Raise People's Taxes”
Video: Media Fed Up with Elizabeth Warren Tax Dodge
Biden: End "Trump's Tax Cut for The Top Tenth of One Percent"
Booker: “My plan would reverse those toxic Trump tax cuts”
Stephen Colbert Calls Out Warren for Dodging Middle Class Tax Question
Video: Warren Dodges MSNBC’s Middle Class Tax Questions
Elizabeth Warren is Still Dodging the Middle Class Tax Question
Video: 2020 Democrats Promise Higher Taxes
Biden Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
Bill De Blasio: “As President, I Would Issue a Robot Tax”
Kamala Harris Calls for Ban on Plastic Straws
Elizabeth Warren's Climate Plan Calls For "Reversing" GOP Tax Cuts
Sanders: We’re Going to “Absolutely” Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Elizabeth Warren on Corporate Tax Cuts: “I really want to see them rolled back.”
Bill de Blasio Calls for Corporate Tax Rate Hike
Amy Klobuchar: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate to 25%
Biden on capital gains tax: “We should raise the tax back to 39.6 percent”
Kamala Harris Threatens to Repeal GOP Tax Cuts 3 Times in August
Joe Biden: “I’m going to eliminate most all” of GOP Tax Cuts
Cory Booker Calls for Repeal of "Toxic" GOP Tax Cuts
Marianne Williamson Joins Dems Calling for TCJA Repeal
Kamala Admits Her Plan Would End Employer Insurance
“Medicare for All” is a Middle Class Tax Increase, Say Dems
Elizabeth Warren Can’t Dodge the Middle Class Tax Question Forever
Dem Socialized Healthcare Plan Will Lead to Middle Class Tax Hikes
Supposed “Moderate” Democrat John Delaney Wants to Impose Carbon Tax on the American People
Klobuchar Suggests Capital Gains Tax Hike and “Doing Something” About TCJA
VIDEO: 2020 Democrats Will Raise Your Taxes
Kamala Harris Campaign Headquarters Located in Opportunity Zone Created by GOP Tax Cuts
Julian Castro: “We’re going to have to raise taxes.”
Biden and Harris: Raise the Corporate Tax Rate
Biden tweet: Ignore the fact I’ve already called for middle class tax hikes
Kamala Harris: “I Will Reverse” Trump’s Tax Cuts
Kamala Harris Calls for Repeal of Tax Cuts Four Times in Three Minutes
Julian Castro Caught Lying about GOP Tax Cuts
NYT: Bidencare Will be Funded by “rolling back” GOP tax cuts
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal “That Tax Bill”
Cory Booker: “I do support” Imposing Carbon Tax on Americans
Harris: “We are Going to Repeal That Tax Bill”
Biden: I Will Raise Corporate Tax Rate to 28%
Kamala Harris Continues to Lie about Tax Cuts
Jay Inslee: “Repeal the Trump Tax Cuts”
Biden Running Ads to “Repeal Trump’s Tax Cuts.”
VIDEO: Ten Times Biden Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Here’s what happens if Dems repeal tax cuts
VIDEO: 10 Times 2020 Democrats Have Threatened to Repeal TCJA
Kamala Harris: When I Enter Office "I Will Repeal" the TCJA
Biden: “First thing I would do as President is Eliminate the President’s Tax Cut.”
Bernie Sanders claims people would be “delighted to pay more in taxes”
Biden: Tax Cuts Will be “Gone” If I’m Elected
Kamala Harris: I Will Repeal Tax Cuts “on day one”
Biden again says capital gains tax is “Much too Low”
Biden: Capital gains tax “much too low”
VIDEO: Five Times Biden has Threatened to Repeal Tax Cuts
Biden: “First thing I’d do is repeal those Trump tax cuts.”
Joe Biden broke his middle class tax pledge
“Mayor Pete” Calls for Steep Tax Hike on Homes and Businesses
Kamala Harris Vows Repeal of Tax Cuts “on Day One”
Biden: “When I’m President, if God willing I am, we’re going to reverse those Trump tax cuts.”
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
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