Bernie Sanders: Trump’s Tax Avoidance Is Why Americans Are Angry With Corrupt System

[TomCADem]

Source: Huffington Post

The ability of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other wealthy people to avoid paying taxes is “exactly why so many millions of Americans are frustrated, they are angry, they are disgusted at what they see is a corrupt political system in this country,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The former Democratic presidential candidate’s comments came after The New York Times reported that Trump may have legally avoided paying taxes for up to 18 years by declaring a $916 million loss in his federal income taxes in 1995.

“Trump goes around and says ‘Hey, I’m worth billions, I’m a successful businessman, but I don’t pay any taxes. But you, you make 15 bucks an hour, you pay the taxes, not me,’” said Sanders, who supports Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “That is why people are angry and want real change in this country.”

* * *

“If everybody in this country was a genius like Mr. Trump is at not paying any taxes we would not have a country,” Sanders said. “I think it’s outrageous, and I think it speaks to one of the issues that Secretary Clinton is talking about, I have talked about.” Even if the practice were legal, it’s shows the system is corrupt, Sanders said on “This Week.”

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-taxes_us_57f1127be4b082aad9bbbf27?r55gpxs1yw3mh7iudi

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. The yuge loss broke the tax prep software & it had to be manually typed; it was that stupefying. .nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Van Jones silences Trump supporter: Tax-evading billionaires are 'part of the corruption'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512461205

[spooky3]

3. He's absolutely right.

[flamingdem]

4. Bernie connecting the dots!

[TomCADem]

6. ABC - How the Trump and Clinton Tax Plans Would Affect Americans

Trump dodging taxes is not enough for him. He wants to make the system even more slanted towards the wealthy:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-clinton-tax-plans-affect-americans-42511029

TRUMP: He would cut the top income tax bracket to 33 percent from its current level of 39.6 percent. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has made the same proposal, which the conservative Tax Foundation said would help boost after-tax income for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans by 5.3 percent. Trump would also cap tax deductions at $200,000 per household.

CLINTON: She is proposing several tax increases on wealthier Americans, including a 4 percent surcharge on incomes above $5 million, effectively creating a new top bracket of 43.6 percent. And those earning more than $1 million a year would be subject to a minimum 30 percent tax rate. She would also cap the value of many tax deductions for wealthier taxpayers. All the changes would increase taxes in 2017 for the richest 1 percent by $78,284, reducing their after-tax income by 5 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center.

* * *

ESTATE TAXES

TRUMP: Would eliminate the so-called "death tax" that is currently levied on estates worth more than $5.45 million ($10.9 million for married couples).

CLINTON: Would increase the estate tax to 65 percent from 40 percent and apply it to more estates, starting with those worth $3.5 million ($7 million for married couples).

[DallasNE]

11. Clinton On Estate Taxes

There is no tax on the first $3.5 million of worth. The current 40% would now apply to worth between $3.5 million and $10 million with 50% applying to the worth between $10 million and $50 million. An additional 55% rate would apply to the worth between $50 million and $1 billion with the 65% rate applying to worth beyond $1 billion.

Your statement misleadingly suggests the 65% rate replaces the 40% rate and applies to everything above the first $3.5 million, which is not the case as the above shows.

I don't quite understand the "married couples" part because the estate tax does not kick in until after both have passed away. When my father passed away everything went to my mother, as it should. Only when my mother passed away some years later was there an estate to go through probate and her wealth was far, far below the $5.45 million so no estate taxes were due.

[TomCADem]

13. ABC News - A Closer Look at Donald Trump's Claim About Hillary Clinton's Estate Tax Plan

Article fact checking Trump's lies about Hillary's plan on estate taxes:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/closer-donald-trumps-claim-hillary-clintons-estate-tax/story?id=42432695

Explanation: Under Clinton’s proposed tax plan, inheritances worth more than $500 million from an individual or $1 billion from a couple would be taxed at a 65 percent rate. But almost certainly no family farm would fall under the top rate.

“In previous discussions of this issue, opponents of the estate tax were unable to find a single case where a family farm had to be sold to pay estate taxes,” Roberton Williams from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center told ABC News.

Currently, every estate worth over $5.45 million from an individual or $10.9 million from a couple is taxed at a flat rate of 40 percent.

Clinton’s proposal would lower that threshold: Estate taxes would apply to inheritances worth more than $3.5 million from an individual or $7 million from a couple, and the rate would range from 45 percent to 65 percent.

[uppityperson]

5. K&R

[Skittles]

7. CORRECT

I have been saying this a long time: I can understand why people are angry; what I CANNOT understand is why they think DONALD FUCKING TRUMP is any kind of answer - HE IS THE PROBLEM

[DallasNE]

8. Trump Supporters Have It All Backwards, As Usual

They are claiming that because Trump knows the tax code so well he is the one to entrust with fixing it. That makes no sense because Trump's only interest is tax avoidance because they say it helps him to create jobs. Wrong Donald, you create jobs only when there is increased demand for whatever it is that you are selling. Hoarding money does not create a single job making Trump the last person on earth to change the tax code so he would start to pay his fair share in taxes. Believe me!

[murielm99]

9. IIRC,

Bernie never released his taxes, either.

[DallasNE]

12. False

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/bernie-sanders-tax-return-222041

[murielm99]

15. True.

He released the smallest amount of information possible. One year, and it had some very odd deductions. The personal financial disclosure for the FEC was never filed.

And he owns three houses?

I'm tired of hearing about how wonderful Bernie is. He is an independent, not a Democrat. The primary is over, and it is time to concentrate on our superbly qualified nominee, Hillary Clinton.

[ronnie624]

16. His biggest, most expensive home, is about 1880 sq. ft.

and has about the same value as Sanders' net worth, which a little more than half a million dollars.

[DallasNE]

17. Why Are You Attacking Me?

Because Bernie was late in releasing his tax returns I thought you somehow missed it so I provided a link, without comment, showing he released his tax returns. Keep in mind that Romney only released 1 year of tax returns. He did also release an estimated return for the year he filed for an extension. Yes, I am disappointed that Bernie followed the Romney example and only released one year but your statement claimed Bernie did not release his tax returns, which I said was false and that stands.

For your information, I have been knocking on doors for the Clinton campaign so I have moved on.

[cstanleytech]

10. He is right but I honestly don't see anything changing any time soon

for a number of reasons.
One is that most of the politicians are themselves very wealthy and don't want it to change and the other is that most of them are influenced to oppose reforms to fix the problem by those same people who are exploiting the system.
This problem isn't limited to taxes either the same thing hinders hikes in minimum wage and enacting laws to protect consumers and a ton of other things all because the wealthy are mostly greedy assholes who want more and more and more.

[CJohnson_LS]

14. Right on Bernie!

Trump's policies will turn this nation into a banana republic where only the 1% like Donald will live comfortably. The rest of us will pay the price of whatever disaster he causes.