Yours Truly did a post yesterday based on the bombshell New York Times revelation that President Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner who is worth an estimated $324 million, has not paid federal income taxes for 7 years thanks to a tax loophole that favors real estate developers. The Kushner post understandably generated a lot of public reaction because it is one of the best illustrations of the glaring inequities that exist with the U.S. tax law. It makes absolutely no sense that someone worth $324 million would pay zero federal income tax for 7 years straight.

In the post Yours Truly called out the mainstream media for breaking very important stories like this but never doing any follow ups to help the public further understand the issue, or force a serious debate on the issue. Luckily one Katy Tur of MSNBC decided to dig a little deeper into the Kushner tax story and boy did she unearth a new bombshell.

Turns out that in 2015, in addition to not paying any federal income tax, Kushner got a $4,000 tax refund from the IRS after earning a whopping 1.7 million. Think about that folks–most working families that earn more than $40,000 a year, have federal income taxes taken out of their checks all year and often end up owing the IRS because they “make too much” yet Kushner who earned 1.7 million in 2015, never paid any federal income tax that year, still got a $4,000 refund from the IRS. Folks this is the height of inequity.

As anybody who has lived paycheck to paycheck(a lot of Americans) knows, most working families literally wait on that four, five or six thousand dollars income tax refund at the beginning of the year to help them catch up with their bills–late rent, car payment, credit cards etc. It is a big deal to most working families. It is also important to note that someone earning more than $40,000 a year often ends up owing the IRS because they “earn too much.” Can you imagine making an argument to such a person making $40,000 a year that they are not entitled to a federal tax refund because they “make too much” but rich Kushner over there, who earned $1.7 million gets a $4,000 refund? Better question–can you imagine how effective such a message would be on the campaign trail for any Dem candidate nationwide?





Bottom line this Kushner tax story is a big deal and Dems should talk more often about it especially as we head towards midterms 2018. These are the kinds of stories that Dems can use to illustrate a clear contrast between their agenda that is geared towards helping working families and that of the GOP which is geared towards helping the rich. Simply put the glaring inequities exposed by this Kushner tax story are enough to swing a huge chunk of independent voters to the Dems. As Katy Tur’s guest Jesse Drucker of the New York Times excellently put it, “There is an intense public interest in understanding the equity of our tax system and the public can decide whether they think think this is an equitable state of affairs.” You will be hard pressed to find a single independent voter who concludes that this is an equitable tax system after looking at the Kushner story.

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