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1 William McBride, et al., Presidential Candidate Tax Plan Report Card 1 (2011)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffcihxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: December 19, 2011 No. 287 Presidential Candidate Tax Plan Report Card By William McBride, David S. Logan, and Scott Hodge Introduction To compile the following grades, we scored each candidate's plan against the principles laid out in the Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact How to Judge a Tax Plan. We gave each of the 10 questions therein equal weight. We relied on candidate statements, websites, and all other available information for the specifics of each plan. However, the candidates differ in their degree of specificity, and we took this into account in regard to the issue of certainty in the tax code. We also took into account not only the specified ideal of each plan but the practical implementation as we see it. This introduces an unfortunate amount of speculation and subjectivity on our part, particularly for the more radically unprecedented proposals. However, we believe this is the right approach, since the history of taxation tells us that the law and the practice are often two very different things. Huntsman: B+ Pros: 1) This wipe the slate clean approach, eliminating all tax expenditures, knocks out preferential taxation in one fell swoop. 2) Lowering the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent, from the current 35 percent, and switching to a territorial system would make the U.S. more globally competitive and would improve America's attractiveness to investors. 3) Eliminating capital gains and dividends taxes would spur investment and bolster economic growth. 4) Reducing the number of tax brackets from 6 to 3 (8, 14, and 23 percent) and eliminating the AMT will simplify the tax code. Cons: 1) The progressive, three-bracket tax system does not treat all taxpayers equally, leaving a degree of special treatment and complexity in the code. ll1iam McBride and David S. Logan are economists at the Tax Foundation. Scott Hodge is president of the Tax Foundation.

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