With states across the nation preparing for primary elections and general elections less than a year away, voters across the country are wondering whom they should vote for. The candidates have received a lot of media attention thus far, but one issue that has not been getting much attention yet is the candidate’s views on taxes. This topic is not talked about or mentioned at debates because nearly all candidates share similar views with other members of their respective parties. Democratic candidates typically want higher taxes on upper income individuals with increase government spending, while Republican candidates tend to favor lowering taxes and continued military spending.

You can bet once the primary elections are over taxes will become a hot-button issue between the designated candidates. In the lead-up to the general election you can expect to see sharp debates between the Republican and Democratic candidates because of their drastically different views on social programs, the extent of our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how to sustain economic growth for our country. Although some of the candidates might share similar views, it is still important to fully understand the details of their individual positions. It is also important to understand how the seemingly unrelated actually has tax consequences.

To help readers of the Roni Deutch Tax Center - Tax Help Blog readers we have gathered information on the tax views – and views on other issues that have tax consequences – for the top 10 presidential candidates.

According to her website, Hillary believes Americans have the right to expect fiscal responsibility, discipline, and honesty from their leaders. She claims that the middle class has been ignored by the current administration and seeks to strengthen and grow the middle class and restore the basic bargain: “if you work hard and do your part, you can build a better life for yourself and your family.”

Clinton has proposed the “American Health Choice Plan” which revolves around an individual mandate requiring everyone to have health insurance. Her plan would give more choices to taxpayers seeking health insurance without quite making it universally available through he federal government. Clinton claims her program would cost about $110 billion per year, but has not yet given specific information on how the plan would be funded besides saying it would mostly be funded by letting President Bush’s tax cuts expire.

To combat the problem with Social Security, Clinton has proposed an American Retirement Accounts plan which she claims will help tens of millions of middle class families build wealth for their future, and lower their reliance on Social Security. The plan will offer matching tax cuts of up to $1,000 for middle class families that save money in private accounts for retirement, and will be funded by freezing the estate tax at 2009 levels.

Another of Clinton’s proposed plans is to create a $50 billion “strategic energy fund” to research and develop alternative sources of fuel and plans to fund the program by eliminating tax subsidies for oil corporations.

For more information, please HilaryClinton.com

If elected to office, John Edwards said he hopes to reform the current federal tax system to "reward working families." His plan includes adding three new tax breaks that he claims are designed to help middle-class working families – but based on the figured presented on his website the breaks all seem to target more lower middle income families. The first break, known as "get ahead" would reward families for putting money into savings by matching up to $500 for households earning less than $75,000. The second break seeks to increase the Child Care Credit by increasing child and dependent care expenses up to $5,000. The third break seeks to triple the Earned Income Tax Credit for single adults and cut the marriage penalty.

In addition to Edward’s new tax breaks for lower income families, he also proposes a group of reforms aimed at increasing the taxes paid by higher income taxpayers. This is presumably to fund lower-income tax cuts. Some elements of his plan include:

• raising the capital gains tax to 28%
• increasing taxes on couples making over $4 million per year
• closing "unfair tax loopholes."

It is estimated that Edward’s lower income tax breaks would cost at least $25 billion per year, but no data has been shown as to whether or not his tax increases would cover that amount or if additional sources of funding would be needed.

John Edwards health care reform plan is built around the idea of requiring all American’s to have health insurance. His plan includes an effort to lower the overall cost of health care and to provide valuable tax credits to those paying for health insurance. His plan is expected to cost upwards of $100 billion per year, and has claimed it would be partially funded by allowing President Bush’s tax cuts to expire. However, he has not yet claimed what other funds would be diverted to his plan, the extent of the funds that are needed, or whether or not it would require an additional tax increase.

For more information, please visit JohnEdwards.com

Rudy Giuliani considers himself the “real fiscal conservative” in this election. He claims to have cut taxes 23 times and turned a $2.3 billion budget deficit into a multi-billion dollar surplus while mayor of New York.

He believes in supply-side economics and hopes to bring his plan to the White House. However, unlike many of the Republican candidates Giuliani has not signed the pledge of the Americans for Tax Reform, which pledges an opposition to tax increases. Instead, he has said he will take a pledge to uphold the constitution if elected to office, but does claim he has strong intentions to lower taxes.

Giuliani also supports preserving President Bush’s tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2010. It is estimated that the cuts will cost the federal government about $2.3 billion from now till 2017 if they are extended past 2010. Giuliani is also a strong supporter of not raising the tax on capital gains. At a GOP debate he claimed last time the capital gains tax was raised the country lost over $45 billion. Additionally, Giuliani supports eliminating the death tax that he claims makes no sense at all.

For more information, please visit JoinRudy2008.com

Mike Huckabee is a strong supporter of the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax replaces income taxes – and the IRS – with a tax on purchases. According to Huckabee, under a Fair Tax plan “all of us will get a monthly rebate that will reimburse us for taxes on purchases up to the poverty line, so that we're not taxed on necessities. This means people below the poverty line will not be taxed at all. We will be taxed on what we decide to buy, not what we happen to earn. We will not be taxed on what we choose to save or the interest those savings earn.” As good as the plan may sound, a bipartisan Advisory Panel on Tax Reform study found that a Fair Tax would actually substantially increase the amount of taxes that 80% of taxpayers pay. The study also found that in order to properly fund the government the new sales tax rate would need to be at least 34%, and the monthly cash rebates would amount to a cost of least $600 billion annually.

When it comes to healthcare Huckabee supports preventative healthcare, while keeping it in the private sector. His plans are to make health insurance tax deductible for individuals, but has not released specific costs or benefits of this plan.

For more information, please visit MikeHuckabee.com

Of all the presidential candidates, John McCain’s campaign emphasizes reducing government spending the most. From ending "pork barrel" spending to reforming the military budget process, McCain has made numerous promises to reduce government spending which he promises will work hand in hand with tax cuts to stimulate the American economy.

As with nearly all of the other Republican candidates, McCain supports strengthening the American military. According to his website, he believes that the answer to our current national security problems is to not "roll back our overseas commitments," but to increase the size of our Army and Marine Corps and continue the current War on Terror. However, McCain does recognize there is a problem with current military spending with promises to reform the defense budgeting process to "ensure that America enjoys the best military at the best cost." However, he has not provided data on whether this would reduce the current $12 billion-per-month budget.

Although McCain previously voted against President Bush’s tax cuts, he now claims to support extending them. When asked if this makes him a "flip-flopper" McCain said that to repeal the taxes would not essentially be a tax increase, and that he voted against those tax cuts when they were introduced because there was no restraint of spending. In addition to President Bush’s tax cuts, McCain also seeks to further reduce taxes on middle class Americans. He has proposed a $150 billion tax cut over the next five years, which would be funded primary by closing corporate tax loopholes. McCain’s plan is to raise the ceiling for the 15% tax bracket to $70,000 for couples filing jointly and to $35,000 for single people. It would primarily benefit taxpayers earning over $25,750 or married couples earning over $43,050 who are currently in the 28% tax bracket.

Some of McCain’s other tax cuts include:

• doubling the child tax credit to $1,000 a year
• expanding the tax incentives for savings and investment
• reducing the tax on large estates
• reducing the marriage penalty

Analysts predict that nearly all the tax cuts would benefit taxpayers earning between $39,000 and $130,000, with little or no breaks for taxpayers earning under $39,000.

For more information, please visit JohnMcCain.com 

One of the main issues in Obama’s campaign is his self proclaimed "devotion to fighting poverty." Through various different programs and tax breaks, Obama created a plan to help improve the current economic climate by increasing job availability for working Americans. His plan projects to cost the federal government $85 billion per year, which he claims will be partially offset by closing corporate loop holes and increasing the capital gains tax. Obama’s campaign to fight poverty also includes tax proposals to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). His website claims that he would reward hard work by increasing the number of workers eligible for the EITC. Under his plan, full-time workers making minimum wage would be eligible for an EITC benefit three times greater then what they can currently receive. Also included in Obama’s fight against poverty is a proposal for an additional raise to the federal minimum wage. Obama claims that he will further raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation, and increase the EITC to make sure that full-time workers can earn a living wage.

Obama also outlined plans to create "a health plan that works," with an overall goal of lowering health care costs for millions of Americans and making health insurance available to those without. He claims that his plan would save a typical American family up to $2,500 every year on premiums but does not mention exactly what the typical American family is. This plan is expected to cost the federal government about $60 billion per year. Obama claims that allowing President Bush’s tax cuts to expire in 2010 would cover this plan but there are no official numbers to support this prediction.

To help combat the ever-increasing college tuition fees. Obama also claims he will eliminate wasteful subsidies to private banks under the federal student loan program. Through this reform, Obama pledges to save taxpayers billions of dollars each year that will be directed to fund grants for college students from low-income households.