CBPP Finds Trump Tax Plan Heavily Tilts Towards the Wealthy–Away from Small Business Owners and their Customer Base



The latest version of Donald Trump’s ever-changing tax plan is facing scrutiny from the Center on Budget and Public Policy and Main Street Alliance leaders. The plan, one that features across the board tax cuts, disproportionately benefits the highest-income earners, those grossing more than $1 million annually.

The self-proclaimed business genius and master of the tax code has failed to produce a tax plan that would not prompt a chain reaction of budget and service cuts, and he has ignored the most significant key to a small business owners success–customers with money to spend.

A 2015 report released by the Main Street Alliance, “Voices of Main Street,” surveyed over 1000 small business owners and found that 52% of respondents cited “more customers” as the most important key to increasing small business success. Doubling the number of respondents that said “lower taxes” and more than quadrupling the number that responded “fewer regulations.”

Tax cuts skewed towards the wealthy elite starve our communities of much-needed resources while further tilting the scales towards large corporations and the rich. What Hillary Clinton coined “Trumped up trickle-down economics” is at play in the Trump proposal, one that ignores history in favor of policy that aims to put his family and families like his in the driver seat of our economy.

Small business owners and our customers are the real economic drivers and to succeed we need a fiscally solvent tax plan that maintains essential services while proportionally distributing tax cuts across the bottom and middle tax brackets.

“To level the playing field for Main Street businesses our tax code must no longer skew in favor of large corporations and their shareholders,” said Deborah Field, the owner of Paperjam Press in Portland, Oregon, and a former corporate tax accountant. “Without holding multinational corporations accountable to pay what they owe and first providing relief to low and middle-income earners we shouldn’t begin to consider tax cuts for the rich.”

"Mr. Trump's tax breaks would deprive the government of badly needed funds for investments in infrastructure, transportation, education, and social services. The resulting budget cuts hinder the types of investments that drive local economies and put small businesses in a better position to succeed,” said Amanda Ballantyne, National Director of the Main Street Alliance. “A tax policy that works for the shops and restaurants on Main Street is one that supports our customer base and our communities. In that regard, Trump's plan falls flat."

“The vast majority of small business owners don’t support a tax system that augments their piece of the pie by cheating their fellow citizens out of theirs. When we contribute our fair share of taxes, those dollars get reinvested in our local communities,” said David Borris, the owner of Hel’s Kitchen Catering in Chicago and Main Street Alliance Executive Committee member. “Local communities that support tens of millions of small businesses nationally.”