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Harris and Trump both want major tax changes. Here’s what they’re proposing — and the impact on you.

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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are both proposing tax changes that would rank among the largest in U.S. history, but their plans would impact very different groups of Americans by providing tax credits and cuts to some taxpayers, while raising taxes on others.

While taxes are always on the ballot during an presidential election, the 2024 race has even more at stake given that many provisions in Trump’s signature tax legislation, the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, will expire at the end of 2025. If Trump wins, he’s expected to extend many of those provisions, while Harris has vowed to only keep those that help people earning under $400,000.

At the same time, both candidates have sought to curry favor with some groups of voters by promising specific tax cuts and credits, such as Harris’ plan to introduce a $6,000 Child Tax Credit for parents of newborns. Trump, meanwhile, has dangled a host of tax cuts to everyone from senior citizens (promising to get rid of income taxes on Social Security) to tipped workers (vowing to eliminate taxes on tips).

But Trump is also proposing across-the-board tariffs on all imports, a plan that would effectively act as a sales tax on American consumers. That’s because the countries that manufacture products imported to the U.S. do not pay tariffs; rather, tariffs are added to the prices of imported products that American consumers purchase.

Here’s what to know about how their tax plans stack up. 

Would Trump cut or raise your taxes?

Trump’s combination of tariffs and tax cuts — including cutting the corporate tax rate to 15% from its current 21% — would rank as the sixth-biggest tax cut since 1940, according to a recent Tax Foundation analysis

However, Trump’s tax cuts would require Congressional approval, which could prove to be a hurdle if at least one of the chambers is controlled by Democrats.

If Trump is unable to enact his tax cuts but adds his proposed tariffs — which don’t need a Congressional greenlight — he would instead be introducing the seventh-biggest tax increase since 1940, the Tax Foundation says. That’s because tariffs are essentially sales taxes paid by U.S. consumers, with the typical household paying about $1,700 more each year in additional costs, according to one estimate.

Meanwhile, income taxes would decline under Trump for all income groups, but the biggest beneficiaries would be high-income households, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model. Their analysis includes Trump’s proposed tax cuts but doesn’t include the impact of tariffs. 

Would Harris cut or raise your taxes?

Harris is proposing a mix of tax cuts, tax increases and expanded tax credits that together would rank as the 15th largest tax increase since 1940, according to the Tax Foundation. 

However, the impact would be greater on higher-income households, given that she has vowed to not raise taxes on those earning less than $400,000. Her tax increases would also be targeted at businesses, as she wants to boost the corporate tax rate to 28% from its current 21%. 

Most low- and middle-income households would actually get a tax break under her proposals, but high-income households would pay substantially more in income taxes than they currently do, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model.

The top 0.1%, or those earning more than $14 million a year, would see their taxes increase by about $167,000 a year. 

What are Harris and Trump proposing for families? 

Harris wants to expand the Child Tax Credit from its current $2,000 to $6,000 for children up to a year old, $3,600 for kids between 1 to 6, and $3,000 for those between 6 to 17. 

Low-income households with kids would receive an additional $2,750 on average from Harris’ expanded CTC, according to a Tax Policy Center analysis

Meanwhile, Trump’s vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, has floated the idea of a $5,000 CTC, but the campaign hasn’t introduced more details, according to the Tax Policy Center. If Trump extends the TCJA, the CTC would remain at $2,000 per eligible child. 

What are Harris and Trump’s plans for taxes on Social Security?

Harris hasn’t proposed any tax cuts for Social Security beneficiaries, while Trump has floated eliminating federal income taxes on the retirement payments.

Trump’s plan would mostly help middle- and high-income retirees, given that low-income retirees often don’t make enough to pay federal income tax on their benefits, according to tax experts. The biggest boost would go to retirees earning between $63,000 and $200,000, the Tax Policy Center estimates. 

At the same time, Trump’s tax cut would likely hasten the insolvency of the Social Security trust fund, which relies on those income taxes for funding, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Retirees would also be facing a bigger benefit cut, up to 33% of their monthly checks rather than the 23% currently forecast, when the trust fund is exhausted, the group estimates. 

What are Harris and Trump’s plans for business taxes?

Harris wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from its current 21%. 

By comparison, Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% from its current 21%.

“Nowhere do the candidates’ tax plans differ more,” noted Howard Gleckman, senior fellow of the Tax Policy Center, in a November 1 blog post. 

What are Harris and Trump’s plans for taxes on overtime and tips?

One place where the candidates converge is on cutting taxes for people who work for tips. Both have portrayed the idea as helping workers with families. 

But Trump is also proposing other tax cuts for workers, such as a plan to get rid of federal income taxes on overtime income

What other tax changes are Harris and Trump proposing?

Harris wants to help people buy homes and start businesses by creating a new $25,000 first-time homebuyers credit and expanding the deduction for startup business expenses from $5,000 to $50,000. 

Trump has also proposed making the interest for auto loans tax deductible, a move that would primarily help higher-income taxpayers who itemize their deductions. 



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Breaking down the Trump, Harris closing messages, Election Day expectations

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Breaking down the Trump, Harris closing messages, Election Day expectations – CBS News


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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump spent the last weeks of their campaigns reinforcing their political messages and appealing to undecided voters. Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha and Republican strategist Matt Gorman join CBS News with more on the final stage of the 2024 presidential race.

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Latest news on Election Day 2024 from Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia

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Latest news on Election Day 2024 from Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia – CBS News


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Thousands of voters headed to the polls on Election Day in Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia. CBS News’ Lilia Luciano, Kris Van Cleave, Skyler Henry and Mark Strassmann report on voting in the battleground states.

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“Fat Leonard” sentenced to 15 years for massive Navy bribery, fraud scheme

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Leonard Glenn Francis, a former defense contractor convicted for masterminding an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 15 years in prison. He was ordered to pay $20 million in restitution and a $150,000 fine, the Department of Justice announced.

Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” pled guilty in 2015 to the bribery and fraud charges, but fled the U.S. in 2022 leaving his GPS ankle monitoring bracelet in a water cooler just days before he was to be sentenced. The U.S. Marshals Service told CBS News Francis was detained on an Interpol red notice at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Venezuela while boarding a flight to Cuba. 

He was returned to the U.S. last year as part of a large prisoner swap deal with Venezuela. Ten American detainees were released in the 2023 deal in exchange for the Biden administration freeing Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman and close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who was facing money laundering charges.

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Leonard Francis, also known as “Fat Leonard,” fled house arrest in 2022, days before he was due to be sentenced in a massive Navy bribery scheme.

U.S. Marshals Service via AP


In a 2015 plea agreement, Francis, the Malaysian owner of a ship servicing company in Southeast Asia, identified seven Navy officials who had accepted bribes and acknowledged paying off officials with hundreds of thousands in cash, as well as luxury goods worth millions. 

He supplied them with prostitutes and Cuban cigars, luxury travel, Spanish suckling pigs and Kobe beef. Officials received spa treatments, top-shelf alcohol, designer handbags, leather goods, designer furniture, watches, fountain pens, ornamental swords and handmade ship models, according to court documents.

In exchange, officers gave him classified information and even redirected military vessels to lucrative ports for his Singapore-based ship servicing company. Francis, according to prosecutors, overcharged the U.S. military by $35 million for his company’s services.

Over 30 Navy officers and contractors have either been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges related to Francis’ services.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino sentenced Francis to a 164-month sentence for bribery and fraud and 16 months for failing to appear, to be served consecutively.

“Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of U.S. Naval forces,” said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in a statement. “The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today.”

Francis, 60, was initially arrested in San Diego on September 16, 2013, and remained in pretrial custody until December 18, 2017, when the court granted his request for release pending sentencing due to a medical condition, the Department of Justice said. Francis served four years and three months in custody before he was released on bond and ordered into house arrest. He remained on bond under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services for almost five years, from December 17, 2017, until he escaped.

“Mr. Francis’ sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme that he perpetrated against the U.S. Navy with assistance from various Navy officials. This fraud conspiracy ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public’s trust in some of our Navy’s senior leaders,” Kelly P. Mayo, the director of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said in a news release on Tuesday. 



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