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Summary Mitt Romney and President Obama have left much unsaid on plans for eliminating tax deductions.
Mitt Romney says he can cut both personal and corporate tax rates, making up for lost revenue by eliminating a raft of deductions. But he won’t reveal which tax deductions he wants to kill, including the fate of the very break that helped make him so wealthy.President Obama, meanwhile, wants to raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans, extend the Bush-era cuts for families earning less than $250,000, and cut corporate rates. Obama, too, says he will make up for lost revenue by eliminating some deductions — but critics say he has been too vague about what corporate breaks would be jettisoned.For all of the focus in the presidential campaign about tax cuts, the more important issue may be whether either candidate has a realistic plan to pay for them by eliminating an array of tax deductions, each of which has an army of defenders and lobbyists determined to retain them.“Romney is incomplete on two halves,” failing to list specific deductions he would eliminate to pay for both corporate and personal taxes, said Roberton Williams, an analyst at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “Obama is complete on one half,” providing specifics about limiting personal tax deductions, but does not give enough details on the corporate side, Williams said.At issue are deductions and other breaks relied upon by individuals and businesses to lower or eliminate their taxes to the federal government. The tax code includes deductions for everything from home mortgage interest to child care to oil exploration. The issue has been magnified by Romney’s statement in a surreptitiously recorded video, made public earlier this week, that 47 percent of Americans pay no income taxes. In some cases, that is because they take advantage of existing tax credits or deductions pushed by both Democrats and Republicans.Romney’s tax plan is the centerpiece of his agenda to spark an economic recovery. The former Massachusetts governor has proposed lowering personal rates by 20 percent, meaning the top rate would fall from 35 percent to 28 percent. The top corporate rate would also fall from 35 percent to 25 percent. Romney has said he would pay for the loss of revenue by “broadening the base,” which would be accomplished by eliminating deductions that would affect a wide swath of taxpayers.But when Romney was asked recently on NBC’s “Meet the Press’’ to name a single deduction he would eliminate, he ducked the question. “I can tell you that people at the high end, high-income taxpayers, are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions,” Romney said, without providing an example.John Taylor, a Stanford University professor who is one of Romney’s top economic advisers, said Romney’s plan purposefully doesn’t spell out which deductions would be eliminated because that will be subject to negotiation with Congress if Romney is elected president.Bruce Bartlett, a former deputy assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy in the Reagan administration, criticized Romney for saying he can pay for a reduction in tax rates by eliminating loopholes and deductions without putting “a solitary one of them on the table. ... That’s irresponsible. That is saying, ‘trust me.’ ”Obama has seized on Romney’s lack of specifics as a key issue. His campaign recently began airing an ad that says Romney’s plan would raise taxes on the middle class by $2,000.The Obama ad relies on a study by the Tax Policy Center that tried to explore ways that Romney’s plan could be paid for, with one hypothetical scenario suggesting taxes on middle-income could go up $2,000.
