Trump’s Tax Provision Gives a $17 Billion Break to Millionaires

Surprise, surprise fellow peasants, Donald Trump’stax plan is definitely benefiting the wealthiest Americans, according to a new congressional report released on Monday. Owners of “pass-through” businesses will receive deductions of up to 20 percent, dousing the wealthy with $40.2 billion in tax breaks, as NBC points out.

Pass-throughs are businesses owned by an individual, a partnership, or “S” corporations. This deduction was snuck in alongside the huge tax overhaul that was signed by Trump back in December. A huge portion of that $40.2 billion—$17.4 billion, or 44.3 percent of the total—is going to go to only about 200,000 people who already make $1 million or more. Another $3.6 billion from the total is going to taxpayers who make $500,000 to $1 million.

What does that mean? It means that in 2018, $21 billion is being funneled back into America’s top one percent of earners, instead of being used for social programs to help the poor, infrastructure, paying down national debt, or a number of other things that are typically done with our taxes.

By 2024, those numbers will rise even higher. The deductions will come out to $60.3 billion, and $31.6 billion of that will go to people who make more than $1 million. "The distribution of benefits from the pass-through deduction largely reflects the distribution of income from these businesses," said Mark Mazur, director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, according to NBC. "Pass-through income from partnerships, S-Corps and LLCs is highly concentrated toward the top of the income distribution."

Rich looking out for the rich. No shocker here.