From Americans for Tax Fairness (https://americansfortaxfairness.org/):
Financial Aid Bill Contains $280 Billion in Business Tax Breaks—Half the Aid Goes to Business, Only a Quarter to Families, & a Big Break for Wealthy Business Owners
WASHINGTON, D.C.— America’s unprecedented health and economic emergencies demand quick enactment of the coronavirus aid package passed by the U.S. Senate, but the flaws in that bill should be swiftly addressed by follow-up legislation. The Senate’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (‘‘CARES Act”) offers too many benefits to business—including wealthy real estate investors—and too few to workers, their families and to those on the frontlines: state and local governments and healthcare providers.
Americans for Tax Fairness has compiled the pie chart below and a table showing the distribution of the $2.3 trillion in financial assistance in the Senate bill. More than half (54%) goes to corporations and businesses, including 12% for tax cuts ($280 billion); only a quarter goes to workers and families ($594 billion); and just 16% ($372 billion) goes to state and local governments, hospitals and schools.
Perhaps the most outrageous provision in the bill—costing $170 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation—is the temporary restoration of a lucrative tax loophole for wealthy owners of pass-through businesses, which include real estate investors. For instance, it would allow commercial property owners to use the theoretical wear and tear on those properties—“depreciation”—to offset unlimited amounts of real-world gains and thereby lower their taxes and even generate big refunds. Though the legislation forbids bailout money from going to the president or his family, this big tax break could be fully exploitable by the family. This tax break and others are explained in more detail in this ATF analysis.
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