The first presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday night.
Yahoo Finance’s Ben Warschle highlighted one key area to watch on Thursday.
Most of the major issues to be debated Thursday are likely to unnerve President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, but taxes could be a key exception.
Judging by the flurry of expectation-setting from both sides this week, both sides seem to see this as an opportunity for them to win, and both have signaled plans to go on the offensive if the issue comes up.
President Trump is seeking to capitalize on many Americans’ aversion to taxes and will tout a wide-ranging plan for cuts.
“Who wants to pay high taxes?” Trump asked of Biden’s plan in a recent podcast appearance, calling it one of Biden’s “worst policies.”
Biden is expected to respond by emphasizing his populist stance on the issue and repeating his promise to raise taxes on corporations and the top 1 percent of the wealthy.
Trump’s plan is to “cut taxes for the super-rich at the expense of the middle class,” according to a memo written before the debate by Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler.
While the candidates’ broad positions on tax policy are well known ahead of a major tax debate scheduled for next year, experts say there is still much to learn.
The winner of November’s election will determine the fate of various provisions of the Trump administration’s tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025.
Biden has frequently discussed his 2025 plan as focused on renewing the 2017 cuts that affect Americans making less than $400,000 a year while allowing provisions aimed at the wealthy to expire.
Biden also unveiled a budget proposal that would push for an increase in the corporate tax rate to 28%.
Trump’s overall campaign message has been a promise to extend the 2017 cuts and possibly make them even further.
During his recent visit to Washington, Trump also laid out a series of tax reform proposals, including a cut in the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to 20% and, although unlikely, abolishing the entire U.S. income tax system and raising tariffs.
But despite the noise around the issue, “we haven’t seen much concrete overall about each side’s vision for tax policy,” said Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation.
