Analysts: Trump remarks on taxes were wrong

Recent comments that Donald Trump made about taxes are inaccurate and do not align with the tax plan he proposed in September, analysts at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CPBB) found.

Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said in a CNBC interview Thursday that the United States is the “highest-taxed nation in the world.” However, tax receipts as a share of the economy are lower in the U.S. than nearly all other advanced countries, CBPP analysts said in a commentary piece Friday.

{mosads}The businessman also said that the middle class is “being taxed at a much higher rate” than it has been previously. But the CBPP analysts said that the average tax rate for households in the middle fifth of incomes is lower than it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

Trump said he is open to negotiating on taxes and is “not necessarily a huge fan” of his plan’s disproportionate cuts on the wealthy.

“I’m so much more into the middle class who have just been absolutely forgotten in our country,” he said.

CBPP analysts said Trump’s tax plan is more concerned about the wealthy than the middle class.

Millionaires would receive 38 percent of Trump’s tax cuts in 2025, while those in the bottom four-fifths of income would only receive 32 percent of the decreases. And under Trump’s plan, the after-tax incomes of those making more than $1 million would increase by 17.9 percent in 2025, while those in the middle fifth of income would  see their incomes increase by 4.9 percent, the CBPP found, citing data from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

“Moreover, once the spending cuts that would be needed to finance his tax cuts are taken into account, most low- and middle-income people would almost surely end up losing significantly from the plan,” the CBPP analysts said.