Report: Taxpayers Lost $323 Billion In Deductions In Trump Tax Scam

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Last updated on March 4th, 2019 at 04:49 am

According to a report at The Huffington Post, published this morning, American taxpayers have lost $323 billion in tax deductions due to Donald Trump’s GOP tax scam. The new tax law was passed in December of 2017 and went into effect for the 2018 tax year.

The estimate of lost deductions is just for the first year, so the actual number over time is likely to be several trillion dollars unless Democrats can do something to rectify the situation. Many Democrats, including those running for president, have come up with programs to change the tax laws to impose higher taxes on the super-wealthy and also cut taxes for the middle class and lower income people.

Elizabeth Warren suggested a tax on ultra-millionaires that would be used to pay for a universal childcare benefit for working Americans. On January 3, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) reintroduced legislation to cut taxes for the middle class.

The Trump-GOP tax scam has also caused millions of American taxpayers to lose all or part of their tax refunds this year, causing a large, nationwide outcry.

The report states:

“The deduction wallop detailed in the government report centers on capped deductions for state and local taxes — including real estate taxes. Formerly all local taxes could be deducted for federal taxes; now it’s capped at $10,000, which particularly hurts homeowners in major metropolitan areas — especially in the Northeast and California — where housing tends to be more expensive.“

The Huffington Post report also makes clear that the deduction cap which hurt Americans was used to pay for massive tax cuts for corporations. Large corporations saw their tax rates cut 40 percent — from 35 percent to 21 percent — under the Trump-GOP tax scam.

Republicans also planned that the tax breaks for corporations and billionaires would be partially paid for by cuts to social programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

According to Huffington Post, their report is based upon:

“an audit conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that examined Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s efforts to block local governments’ attempts to stop the federal government from taking an extra bite out of community residents.”

U.S. taxpayers have seen refunds plummet 17 percent based upon filings in the first weeks of the tax filing season.

Hopefully the lost tax deductions and lost refunds will cause American workers to wake up and see what is really going on with Republican rule in Washington. If the U.S. tax system is ever going to be made fair for average Americans then Democrats must be put back in charge of the federal government.

As much as anything else, this new tax report shows that in the 2020 elections our country greatly needs another Big Blue Wave that will sweep Democrats into power.

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Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.