Trump Tax Still Not Trickling Down To Workers

Despite Republican claims, the Trump tax is still not trickling down to workers. More companies are announcing they are using their massive corporate tax cuts to benefit their wealthy shareholders, not their workers. Meanwhile, as workers have been left behind, the Trump administration continues to waste more taxpayer dollars for their own gain.

 

Cisco will repatriate $67 billion in foreign cash holdings as a result of the Trump tax, and plans to spend much of it to benefit their shareholders.

 

Wall Street Journal: “The networking-gear maker said Wednesday it would repatriate $67 billion of its foreign cash holdings to the U.S. this quarter, in one of the largest repatriation plans yet revealed. Cisco plans to spend much of the newly repatriated cash on share buybacks and dividends, it said Wednesday while reporting earnings, amounting to about $44 billion over the next two years.”

 

Amazon will get a $789 million tax break from the Trump tax after having paid nothing in federal taxes in 2017.

 

ITEP: “In 2017, Amazon reported $5.6 billion of U.S. profits and didn’t pay a dime of federal income taxes on it. The company’s financial statement suggests that various tax credits and tax breaks for executive stock options are responsible for zeroing out the company’s tax this year. […] Incredibly, Amazon’s corporate tax goose egg for 2017 doesn’t include the effect of a second big tax disclosure: the $789 million one-time tax break the company projects it will receive due to the new tax law.”

 

Wall Street money managers are seizing on new loopholes in the Trump tax.

 

Bloomberg: “Since late 2017, hedge fund managers have created numerous shell companies in the First State, corporate America’s favorite tax jurisdiction. These limited liability companies share a common goal: dodging new tax rules for carried-interest profits through a bit of deft legal paperwork.”

 

Politico: “Rich Wall Street money managers may be able to avoid paying higher taxes thanks to an oversight in the new tax law. A glitch in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act appears to allow them to escape a crackdown on long-criticized tax break for ‘carried interest’ that allows hedge funds, private equity firms and others to pay much lower rates on some of their income than ordinary wage earners.”

 

The Trump tax gave a massive windfall to big banks and incentivized them to charge higher interest rates to local governments and non-profits.

 

Bloomberg: “As U.S. banks were tallying up the billions of dollars in extra profits they’ll reap from the sweeping tax cuts signed into law by President Donald Trump, they were quietly delivering unwelcome news to local governments: The interest rates on their loans were about to go up.”

 

Bloomberg: “The impact is being felt across the country by governments and non-profits that borrowed through loans, a loosely regulated niche of public finance that took off after the end of the last recession. Municipal Market Analytics estimates that there are about $180 billion of such loans outstanding. That could translate into tens of millions of dollars in extra costs each year for local agencies that Trump is pushing to boost spending on roads, airports and other projects.”

 

The White House continues to tout vague bonus announcements from companies that are laying off workers.

 

Associated Press: “Pepsi announced it's laying off employees the same day it touted $1,000 bonuses because of the new tax law.”

 

Trump continues to make false claims about the role of the tax law in U.S. investments.

 

Washington Post: “On GM, Trump is not on solid ground. He said the automaker would be shuttering a plant in South Korea and moving it to Detroit, but the company made no such announcement. It said only that it was closing the South Korean facility. This claim by itself is worth Four Pinocchios.”

 

After blowing a hole in the budget with tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthy, Trump’s budget proposed massive cuts to vital programs for working Americans.

 

Bloomberg: “Entitlement programs would see a $1.7 trillion cut over a decade, including $237 billion from Medicare. The budget shows the 2019 deficit nearly doubling from projections last year, to $984 billion.”

 

Washington Post Wonkblog: “Trump’s budget hits poor Americans the hardest.”

 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to waste taxpayer dollars for their own gain.

 

USA Today: “Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and airfare for his wife during a European trip last summer that cost taxpayers more than $122,000, according to a VA inspector general report released Wednesday.”

 

Washington Post: “In total, the taxpayer-funded travel for Pruitt and his top aides during that stretch in early June cost at least $90,000, according to months of receipts obtained by the Environmental Integrity Project under the Freedom of Information Act. That figure does not account for the costs of Pruitt’s round-the-clock security detail, which have not been disclosed.”