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Senator Michael Bennet’s “The Real Deal” Tax Plan: Budgetary Effects

Summary: We project that five major tax proposals included in Senator Michael Bennet’s “The Real Deal” tax plan would raise over $4.5 trillion dollars over the 10-year budget window (2020 - 2029) on a conventional basis before economic feedback effects.

Senator Michael Bennet’s “The Real Deal” Tax Plan: Budgetary Effects

Senator Michael Bennet’s presidential campaign recently released a document detailing his economic agenda, referred to as “The Real Deal”. The campaign document cited budget estimates provided by the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM).

PWBM routinely works with policymakers as they are crafting policy. PWBM does not take stances on policy issues. It is the policy of PWBM to independently release an estimate after a policymaker releases their proposal citing PWBM’s calculations.

The following estimates represent PWBM’s assessment of five major provisions in Senator Bennet’s plan.

  1. Raise ordinary rates. Raise the top two rates on ordinary income to 39.6 percent and 44 percent at brackets of $250,000 and $500,000 for single filers, and brackets of $500,000 and $1 million for joint filers.
  2. Raise the corporate tax rate. Increase the corporate income tax rate to 28 percent.
  3. Repeal Section 199A. Eliminate the 20 percent deduction for Qualified Business Income.
  4. Tax capital income on a mark-to-market basis. For publicly-traded assets, tax accrued gains annually. For assets without a publicly ascertainable price, impose a deferral charge upon realization. Tax capital gains and dividends from C corporations at a rate of 24 percent.
  5. Raise the estate tax. ​Lower the estate tax threshold to $3.5 million for individuals ($7 million for married couples) and establish a graduated rate structure: 45 percent applies to estates over the threshold and below $11 million; 50 percent applies to estates over $11 million and below $50 million; 55 percent apples to estates over $50 million and below $1 billion; 60 percent applies to estates valued over $1 billion.

Table 1 presents conventional revenue estimates for each item. The estimates are “stacked” such that interactions between policies are taken into account.

Table 1. Conventional Revenue Estimates, Fiscal Years 2020-2029

Billions of Dollars, Change from Current-Law Baseline

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Provision 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Budget Window
1) Raise ordinary rates 39 51 54 58 61 65 63 60 54 58 563
2) Raise the corporate tax rate 62 84 98 103 106 107 115 125 126 125 1,052
3) Repeal Section 199A 53 70 76 81 85 89 23 6 3 0 486
4) Tax capital income on a mark-to-market basis 147 170 185 198 210 223 242 256 270 287 2,188
5) Raise the estate tax 2 20 27 28 30 32 33 26 24 25 246
Total 303 396 440 468 492 517 475 472 477 495 4,535



John Ricco produced this analysis under the direction of Richard Prisinzano and Kent Smetters. Calculations are based on PWBM's model that is developed and maintained by PWBM staff.