Where's Herbert Hoover when you need him?

To the Editor:



As one who was born when Herbert Hoover was president, I have a natural skepticism about any Republican "tax reform" plan.



President Donald Trump wants us to believe he is giving us a huge tax reduction present for Christmas. Actually, the Republican tax plan is a misdirected Tooth Fairy scheme. All of us will feel the pain, but under their pillows the wealthy American corporations and richest Americans will find huge cash gifts for Christmas.



Jobs? That is the old Republican "trickle down" nonsense. It never produces the promised jobs. Besides, with 4.1 percent unemployment just announced, we supposedly have full employment now. How do we create more jobs by giving gifts to the wealthy, while at the same time significantly increasing our national debt.



Our real problems cannot be resolved by huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. We have serious under-employment meaning low wages for many of us. Also, more than a third of eligible workers in America are not in the labor force, many due to lack of skills in a high-tech economy. We have a serious national drug abuse crisis which leaves many Americans effectively disabled and unable to work.



The Republican tooth fairy economic plan does nothing to address these serious problems. Trump is gifted about loudly proclaiming national emergencies. But then he takes no steps to directing federal funds toward alleviating the problems.



Maybe it would be better if my birth President, Herbert Hoover, was still with us. He was an honest man. He was one of the many honest Republican Presidents I experienced during my long lifetime. Sadly, the current occupant of the White House cannot be counted among them.



Warren Nolan

Marietta





People wealthy enough to pay estate tax shouldn't complain



To the Editor:



As an investor, I strongly support a simpler tax code with fewer loopholes, more transparency and less burden on the middle class. Ayn Rand, a free market libertarian who Paul Ryan has read extensively, said, "Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future."



Regretfully, along with some logical middle class tax reductions, the proposed Republican tax plan eliminates the estate tax which already has a very high $5,450,000 federal exemption. According to a 2015 Congressional report on taxation, 4,700 estate tax returns with an estate tax liability were filed in 2013 out of 2.6 million US deaths. This means that one extremely wealthy American out of every 550 who dies leaves a taxable estate.



Without an estate tax, families can shelter hundreds of millions in appreciating assets and pass them to their heirs, tax-free, forever. Such a change would encourage owners to keep employee pay and benefits as low as possible while spending revenue on hard assets like buildings, machinery and real estate which appreciate tax-free. Plus, taking depreciation tax breaks on much of those appreciating hard assets.



We should not have a tax system that is designed by the very rich to benefit the very rich. Incredibly wealthy family dynasties of the uber-privileged 1 percent that can go on forever limit broader economic participation and have too much governmental influence. The estate tax should remain and those of us wealthy enough to have to pay it shouldn't complain.



Kevin Curtis

Cazenovia

Rep. John Katko undecided on GOP tax reform bill; plans negotiations





Tax bill contains three giveaways to the 1-percenters



To the Editor:



The GOP tax plan gives enormous benefits to giant corporations and their multi-billionaire owners, adding at least $1.5 trillion to the national debt. The big losers are the middle and working classes and, eventually the poor, when the programs for whom will, inevitably, be slashed to pay for this gift to the 1 percent.



Three giveaways to 1-percenters dominate the GOP tax plan. For very large corporations, the top tax rate is dropped from 35 percent to 20 percent and a new deduction for all equipment and a special low rate on re-patriated monies are added for their benefit.



Next the estate tax, which benefits only those estates worth over $5.49 million, will end by 2024. Tax deductions for charitable donations by the mega-rich will continue, a significant means of reducing their tax burden, while they will be liberated from the Alternative Minimum Tax, which has served as a bulwark against excessive tax-dodging.



Finally, the GOP tax plan lets the highest income-earners dodge their tax responsibilities through "pass-through" companies by dropping that tax-rate from 39.6 percent to 20-25 percent.



Who loses under the GOP tax plan? Small businesses, homeowners, charities, the working poor, and high-tax blue states like New York. The GOP tax plan explodes the deficit to pay back their billionaire backers, while shifting the tax burden downwards. This bill is terrible for our communities, our state and our nation. Rep. John Katko should not only vote against this bill, he should aggressively challenge his peers in the House to deny this giveaway to the 1 percent.



Marthe Reed

Syracuse





Ultra-wealthy will benefit twice under estate tax rules



To the Editor:



The Congressional Republicans' tax proposal, unveiled last week, has seen a slew of publicity both for and against, and the focus has been on those topics the average taxpayer can readily recognize. Tax rates, tax brackets, child care credits (or loss of credits) and loss of state tax deductions have received the bulk of the attention from analysts and pundits.



But there are hidden items that deserve as much attention. I'll give you one and the public should decide its fairness.



For decades, Congress thought it was fair that if an estate is subject to estate taxes, then except for some special income items, the heirs should not also have to pay an income tax on the inheritance. It accomplished this through a method (called "basis step-up") that assured the heirs no income tax on the appreciation in the inherited assets up to the time of the decedent' death. This was particularly valuable, and fair, in years past when the federal estate tax exemption was relatively low (it was only $600,000 in 2001) and a significant portion of the population had to worry about paying an estate tax. Paying an income tax when appreciated assets were later sold was seen as an unfair double tax.



Congress has raised the federal estate tax exemption periodically over the past 15 years, and it now sits at just under $5.5 million per person. Consequently, only the very wealthy have to contend with an estate tax, but at least they receive the benefit of avoiding an income tax on appreciated assets. By the way, that holds true for everyone. Even if no estate tax is due, the decedent's family still gets the benefit of the basis step-up and pays no income taxes on the appreciation through the date of death.



The new tax bill would eventually eliminate the estate tax by 2023 (with an immediate doubling of the exemption to $11.2 million per person), giving the very wealthy a huge tax cut. But instead of eliminating or making any other adjustment to the basis step-up rule, Congressional Republicans left in place basis step-up. As proposed, the very wealthy families (the top 0.3%) would pay no estate taxes on their inheritance and no income taxes on the appreciation their families have benefited from as they hold on to stocks, bonds, real estate, passive business holdings and the like. Think of the Gates, Bezos and Trump families and the income taxes they would save.



The wealthy paying their fair share? Or obtaining a huge benefit while the middle class receives peanuts under a trumpeted "middle class tax cut" bill? I'm curious as to where the public comes out on this.



Stewart M. McGough

Syracuse





Katko, just say 'no' to tax bill, say 'yes' to demanding Trump's tax returns



To the Editor:



Congressman John Katko, keep it simple - no negotiation necessary! Just say "no" to this ridiculously structured, oppressive to nearly all, middle-class baiting, the poorest-of- the-poor neglecting, and the rich-enriching tax plan!



And say "Yes, you must" to demand the release of President Trump's tax returns so the public knows how he would benefit!



Dave Pasinski

Fayetteville





Simpler tax structure, higher standard deduction helps middle class



To the Editor:



Burt McCormick doesn't like the tax reform that Republicans including Donald Trump and Congresswoman Claudia Tenney are hoping to pass soon. In his long commentary on Oct. 24, 2017, headed "GOP tax plan won't help middle class" he says, referencing Tenney, "Unfortunately. she never connects the dots to demonstrate how anyone other than the top 2 percent would benefit."



McCormick, in his diatribe against the tax cut, misses a few dots:



1. A reduction of tax brackets and rates, an increase of standard deduction to $24,000 for intact families and $12,000 for singles, and major simplification of tax preparation will favor the middle class big time.



2. A significant part of the tax reform helps small businesses.



3. Small businesses generate a major portion of new job opportunities for the middle class.



4. Small businesses are strangling under complex tax requirements and regulations that inhibit their growth and even new business creation.



5. Small business owners, especially new ones, are unable to cope with the complexity that current tax rules lay on them while at the same time needing to focus on the management and improvement of their enterprise.



6. In order to survive the complexity small businesses must expend a considerable portion of their limited resources on purchasing outside services.



7. Tax simplification and benefits for small businesses would diminish the need for outside services.



Peter Judge

Cazenovia

Katko 'un-town hall' fails to tackle tough questions on taxes



To the Editor:



Being the recipient of a robot call asking me to participate in Rep. John Katko's telephone town hall on the tax reform bill being worked on at this moment, I acquiesced. I wasn't too keen on it but if you are going to learn autodidactically, you have to hear and understand exactly what is going on in one's community. So, after listening to the first few questions, I gave up. The questions seemed like they were scripted; they seemed hyper-personal; they were devoid of any considerations for a community-wide perception of just how this so-called tax reform would affect someone in a different situation than themselves.



Even though the questions would impact more than just the questioner, they were asking from a cocoon of self, almost solipsistic. Can we still get our children through college? Would they leave the deduction for state taxes in the reform package? Is the personal exemption going up?



Katko did a presentable job in displaying the conservative ideology. His answers spoke nothing about the approximately 75 loopholes that are presently in the tax code that overwhelmingly benefit the 1 percent. The most obvious one is the real estate adjustment loophole that our president uses to pay no taxes. Katko could have explained to the total telephone audience how any of these loopholes work, educating his constituency to recognize a scam when they hear it. He should try explaining the "carried interest" loophole, or inversions, or offshore accounts from which corporations borrow money back at miniscule rates. All perfectly legal. Is this tax reform bill going to handle those flaws? You guess!



But the most egregious and damning subterfuge Katko never touched on, is the fact that cutting corporate tax rates, putting more money into the coffers of multinational businesses to create jobs and stimulate the economy, does not work! That plan hasn't worked in 50 years since before Reagan was president. Proof of its failure just needs one to look at a state, Kansas, that has done this for the last 10 to 12 years. Its financial state is abysmal. Trust me. Giving corporations more money with tax cuts most likely will be used to buy back stock, pay shareholders bigger dividends, give CEOs, CFOs, COOs, VPs and any other alphabet executives stock options and performance bonuses.



I understand that telephone town halls are the best Katko can do from Washington. But he is our representative in the chaos that is the present Washington. He needs to be searingly truthful and grow a moral prefrontal cortex while educating his constituents. Then they might believe him.



Rosemarie Pagano Bundy

Syracuse