Presidential candidates’ tax cut proposals

WILMINGTON — Whether you’re a big business owner or a middle income wage earner, tax cuts are enticing. The three major presidential candidates all propose tax cuts, whether they be new or already in place.

Certified financial planner Ross Marino gave a break-down of the candidates’ proposals. “For John McCain, he plans on extending the Bush tax cuts, so he doesn’t really bring out a lot of new tax cuts for individuals,” he said. McCain also plans to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent, which is something Marino said has a good history.

He said, “From an economic standpoint, when you put more money in the pockets of businesses, that money does tend to flow through to business employees, they hire more jobs, they invest more money, so that is stimulitive. It’s not immediate and a lot of voters like to see, ‘what are you going to do for me right now?’, but from a long-term perspective, lowering the corporate tax rate has worked well in the past.”

Hillary Clinton’s biggest tax cuts relate to health care. Marino said, “While many may remember the universal health care that was talked about ages ago, most of what we see in her platform now is tax credits to help people get insurance on their own or for businesses to get those same people insurance.”

Marino said Clinton offers something other candidates don’t – an account to help save for retirement called the American Retirement Account. “It’s a type of national savings account where each family can save up to five thousand dollars.”

Marino said this shows Clinton is trying to stimulate savings for the future as a supplement for social security, not a replacement. According to Marino, Barack Obama offers a unique tax cut not offered by the other candidates – no taxes for seniors making less than fifty thousand dollars.

He said, “The earned income tax credit will triple under Obama’s plan, the childcare tax credit will go up dramatically under Obama’s plan. So we see a lot of the cuts he’s proposing out there will really benefit people who make less than fifty thousand dollars a year, whether they work and have income or don’t have income.”

Marino said several of Obama’s tax cuts target start-up new business owners and lower income people.