Changes

*[https://www.bencarson.com/issues/tax-reform ]claims that USA has the highest corporate tax rates in the world at 35%, but this isn’t true. Japan has the world’s highest tax rates at 40% on income, 37% on domestics, and 38% for multinational corporations. Further, the average US company pays around 23% tax after deductions and MNCs pay 28% on average. This puts the US as the second highest corporate tax in the world. [http://www.forbes.com/pictures/gg45ehmhi/hey-mister-tax-man/]*Claims current tax system discourages entrepreneurship and investment and inhibits growth of the economy*Tax proposal:**flat 14.9% tax (no deductions) that applies to all incomes over 150% federal poverty level **tax only once (no double taxation on dividends, capital gains, interest income) at the personal level **eliminate deductions from home mortgage interest, charity, state and local taxes**eliminate alternative minimum tax**eliminate death tax**Claims: raise growth rate by 1.6% up to 4% annually, increase GDP by 16% in 10 years, create 5 million new jobs, increase wages by 11% *Fact checks**death tax: only 0.2% of Americans are paying the estate tax currently, mainly affects a few small businesses and farmers [http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-13/why-republicans-want-a-bigger-u-s-estate-tax-repeal-than-ever ] **There already is currently a $5.43 million exemption, so repealing the estate tax would mostly help the rich**Republican proposal to repeal estate tax would be easier on farmers that have much of their assets tied to their land

**flat tax rate plan: likely would lead to at least $1 trillion hole [http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/04/ben-carson/does-ben-carsons-tithe-based-tax-plan-lead-1-trill/ ] **AMT: eliminating it would largely benefit the wealthy, who end up having to pay the higher tax rate when their income is above a certain threshold [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_minimum_tax ] **eliminating deductions: it’s true that mortgage deductions doesn’t tend to increase housing and it mainly helps the wealthy, who use it as a housing subsidy. Most others don’t take advantage of the mortgage deduction and instead take standard deductions. Plus, home prices tend to be higher than they would be without the deductions, which offsets the benefits from the deduction and discourages home ownership. [http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/the-sacrosanct-mortgage-interest-deduction/?_r=0 ][http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/2015/11/11/what-ben-carson-got-right-about-taxes-in-the-4th-republican-debate ] **eliminating double taxation on dividends, etc. would encourage more people to retain most of their income in stocks and pay zero taxes on dividend earnings from stock double taxation on capital gains: very controversial topic, some say that lowering it will encourage investment in companies that are more risky but also putting forward progressive technologies; others say that the reduced tax would largely benefit the wealthy [http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-should-capital-gains-be-taxed-1425271052 ]