Tag: clinton

Debate Prep: The Candidates’ Marginal Rate Proposals #debates

By Sam Brunson

In anticipation of tonight’s debate, I’m going to describe what both candidates propose to do with tax rates, provide a little commentary, and suggest a couple questions that the moderator might ask to clarify what the candidates plan on doing.

The candidates’ proposals for individual tax rates illustrate one of their biggest divergences. As best I can tell, in fact, their plans for tax rates are as different as it is possible to be. And what are those plans? Continue reading “Debate Prep: The Candidates’ Marginal Rate Proposals #debates” →

Grading the Candidates’ Tax Disclosure (Updated)

By Sam Brunson

Image by Ludwig. License.
Image by Ludwig. License.

Nearly two months ago, guesting on Prawfsblawg, I wrote about the state of the presidential candidates’ disclosure of their tax returns. Since then, they’ve gone through several more primaries, and we have a better idea of where each candidate stands in the electorate. So, as the semester winds up and my focus shifts to grading, I thought I’d warm up by grading the candidates on their level of tax disclosure.

A caveat before we begin: as tax historian Joseph Thorndike has noted (here and 150 Tax Notes 591 (2016)), while there’s a strong norm for candidates’ releasing their tax returns (consistently since 1980, and sporadically for at least a decade before that), they are under no legal obligation to do so. If we really care about seeing candidates’ tax returns, we should encourage Congress to make disclosure mandatory.

That said, my grades aren’t based on legal obligation. They’re based on some combination of the quality and quantity of the disclosure.  Continue reading “Grading the Candidates’ Tax Disclosure (Updated)” →