Americans for Tax Fairness Principles and Priorities for 2025 Trump Tax Cut Fight

Americans for Tax Fairness fights for a fair tax system that advances racial justice, gender justice, and economic justice for all Americans. ATF supports tax policies that require the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share in taxes to support an equitable and thriving economy that works for everyone. ATF opposes tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and tax policies that concentrate more wealth in fewer hands.

ATF’s top goal for 2025 is to block renewal of the expiring Trump-GOP tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy and big corporations, drain billions of dollars from public services and deepen national debt. Rather than renewing tax breaks that widen inequality and disparities in our country, concentrate wealth at the very top, and have a corrosive impact on democracy, the tax code should raise revenue from the wealthy and corporations to support investments that build an economy for all.  

This document outlines six principles that will guide ATF’s approach to the 2025 tax fight, and includes: 

• A list of the Trump tax provisions that benefit the wealthy and expire in 2025 that we will work to block from being extended
• Important provisions that must be included in a 2025 tax bill
• Additional provisions to raise taxes on the rich and wealthy corporations that are needed

Americans for Tax Fairness Principles for 2025 Trump Tax Cut Fight

• Wealthy people and large profitable corporations should pay more in taxes to raise significant additional revenue to advance racial, gender, and economic justice.
• End the 2017 Trump tax cuts for people making more than $400,000.
• Enact other policies that ensure that the wealthiest pay a more fair share of taxes, including taxing wealth like work and more fairly taxing dynastic wealth.
• Any new tax cuts should benefit households with low and moderate incomes.
• Give the IRS the tools to hold wealthy households and corporations to account for paying what they owe in taxes by fully funding the agency, replenishing recent cuts, and making the augmented funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act permanent
• Remove the incentives for offshoring American factories and jobs by equalizing the tax rates between foreign and domestic profits and bringing us into full compliance with the OECD international corporate tax agreement.

Americans for Tax Fairness Policy Priorities for 2025 Trump Tax Cut Fight

1. Block the extension of these Trump tax provisions that benefit the wealthy and expire at the end of 2025 (the numbers in parentheses are the 10-year projected cost or revenue generated): 

• • The cut to the top individual tax rate from 39.6% to 37% (roughly -$600 billion)
  • The creation of a special 20% loophole for pass-through business income (-$684 billion)
  • The doubling of the estate tax exemption(-$167 billion)
  • The weakening of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) (-$1.36 trillion)
  • The creation of Opportunity Zones (-$70 billion)

2. Preserve business revenue raisers in the 2017 bill including:

• • The phase out of bonus depreciation  (-$378 billion)
  • The stricter limit on net interest deductions (-$50 billion)
  • The requirement that research and experimentation expenditures be capitalized and amortized over time (-$277 billion)

3. Include these important tax provisions in a 2025 tax bill so the rich and wealthy corporations pay closer to their fair share:

• • Raise the corporate tax rate back to 35% (just raising to 28% is +$1.3 trillion) 
  • Ensure that more of the income of the very wealthy faces taxation (President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax would raise +$503 billion and Senator Wyden’s Billionaires Income Tax would raise +$557 billion)
  • Bring the U.S. into compliance with the OECD minimum tax framework (around +$700 billion)
  • Restore the $21 billion in cuts to IRS funding, and permanently extend the augmented mandatory funding initially provided by the Inflation Reduction Act after it expires in 2032. (IRS funding generates significantly more than it costs because the money pays for additional enforcement of wealthy individuals and corporate tax cheats who pay more in taxes).

4. Include these additional policies that would make the tax system fairer and generate revenue to fund key programs for all Americans (many of these have been proposed by President Biden):

• • Close the stepped-up basis loophole (+$204 billion)
  • Increase the stock buyback tax from 1% to 4% (+$166 billion)
  • Expand and raise the Net Investment Income Tax (+$797 billion)
  • Create new top income tax brackets and/or a millionaire’s surtax (+$634 billion for a millionaire’s surtax)
  • Tax dividends & capital gains greater than $1 million as ordinary income (+$289 billion)
  • Overhaul the Estate Tax (+$546 billion)
  • Make the pass-through loss limitation permanent (+$137 billion)
  • Close the carried interest loophole (+$14 billion)
  • Create a financial transaction tax (+$752 billion to $2.4 trillion)
  • End tax subsidies for fossil fuels (+$120 billion)