On Sunday Pete Buttigieg repeated his call for a drastic tax increase on U.S. companies. He wants to raise the 21% corporate tax rate all the way up to 35% by repealing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This would give the U.S. the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world.
“We can make sure that we reverse the corporate tax cuts of the Trump era and ask the wealthy to pay their fair share,” Buttigieg said during a town hall in Nashua, New Hampshire on Sunday.
Buttigieg has formally called for the repeal of the entire Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
As reported by CNBC on Jan. 10:
His campaign said the plan will be paid for by reforming the capital gains tax and repealing the 2017 GOP tax overhaul, reforms that had been previously disclosed.
Before President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, the U.S. had the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world: 35 percent. The tax cuts permanently reduced the corporate tax rate to a more competitive 21 percent.
State corporate taxes average 6.0 percent across the U.S., so if Buttigieg reversed the tax cuts he would end up imposing a combined average corporate rate of 41 percent.
This would give the U.S. a much higher corporate tax rate than the United Kingdom (19 percent), China (25 percent), Canada (26.8 percent), and Ireland (12.5 percent). In fact, Buttigieg’s approach would impose a tax rate much higher than the current combined corporate rate across the 36 member Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), which is currently 23.7 percent.
An increase in the corporate tax rate would also directly raise the cost of utility bills in all 50 states.
In addition, Buttigieg has called for a full repeal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Such repeal would hit the middle class hard.
If the tax cuts were repealed:
- A family of four earning the median income of $73,000 would see a $2,000 tax increase.
- A single parent (with one child) making $41,000 would see a $1,300 tax increase.
- Millions of low and middle-income households would be stuck paying the Obamacare individual mandate tax.
- Utility bills would go up in all 50 states as a direct result of the corporate income tax increase.
- Small employers will face a tax increase due to the repeal of the 20% deduction for small business income.
- The USA would have the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world, higher than the United Kingdom (19 percent), China (25 percent), Canada (26.8 percent), and Ireland (12.5 percent).
- Taxes would rise in every state and every congressional district.
- The Death Tax would ensnare more families and businesses.
- The AMT would snap back to hit millions of households.
- Millions of households would see their child tax credit cut in half.
- Millions of households would see their standard deduction cut in half, adding to their tax complexity as they are forced to itemize their deductions and deal with the shoebox full of receipts on top of the refrigerator.
In Indiana, where Buttigieg was the mayor of South Bend, households who made the state average income of $55,476 received a tax cut of around $1,438 according to a recent Tax Foundation report.
Even left-leaning and establishment media outlets confirm the good news arising from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:
- The New York Times flatly stated: “Most people got a tax cut.”
- The Washington Post stated: “Most Americans received a tax cut.”
- CNN’s Jake Tapper did his own fact check and concluded: “The facts are, most Americans got a tax cut.”
- CNN’s Jake Tapper also stated: “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.”
- FactCheck.org stated: “Most people got some kind of tax cut in 2018 as a result of the law.”
- FactCheck.org also stated: “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.
If you want to stay up-to-date on their threats to raise taxes, visit www.atr.org/HighTaxDems.