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But in the process he made an already inaccurate argument even more wrong. The GOP presidential candidate attacked Clinton on several fronts Aug. 25 in Manchester, including over alleged elements of her tax plan. \"She wants to raise taxes on African-American owned businesses to as much as nearly 50 percent more than they\'re paying now,\" Trump said. Trump’s campaign did not respond to our requests to show us how Clinton’s tax targets black business owners with close to a 50-percent tax increase. It appears Trump’s penchant for going off-script further undermined his own attack. Wrong about rates Let’s acknowledge immediately that Trump’s focus on African-Americans, as if Clinton planned to tax them as some vindictive measure against black-owned businesses, is misleading. Trump has been attempting to woo black voters lately, so he likely was trying to present his point about taxation in a way that resonated with African Americans. But it comes across as Clinton targeting blacks in a way that would not apply in the tax code. There’s nothing in her tax plan that spotlights the country’s 2.6 million or so black-owned businesses in such a way. \"The tax code is race neutral. Nothing targets — or gives preference to — anyone based on race,\" said Roberton Williams, a fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. \"Whether a provision disproportionately affects people of one race relative to those of another race depends on particular situations but isn\'t based on race.\" We have an idea what Trump was trying to say. Earlier this month, he told a Detroit crowd on Aug. 8 that Clinton \"would tax many small businesses by almost 50 percent.\" We rated this statement Mostly False in a previous fact- check. The Trump campaign told us then that his earlier statement referred to a 4 percent surcharge Clinton has proposed on high earners. Using an analysis of Clinton’s plan from the Tax Policy Center, the campaign pointed out the top tax rate is currently 39.6 percent. A business owner also could potentially be paying 3.8 percent in Medicare taxes, reaching a rate of 43.4 percent. Add the 4 percent surcharge on top of that and you reach 47.4 percent. That was the \"nearly 50 percent\" part. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on September 11, 2024 in an Instagram post \"Debate moderators made the false claim to Donald Trump that there is nowhere in the United States where abortion is legal up until birth.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • September 13, 2024 Except it’s not as simple as that. Clinton\'s proposed 4 percent tax increase only applies to taxpayers who have an adjusted gross income of over $5 million, and only income in excess of $5 million would be taxed at that extra 4 percent. That’s not a lot of business owners. Only about 0.5 percent of all small businesses in the nation reported a profit of more than $1 million in 2011, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis. Overall, only a bit more than 34,000 of the 150 million or so tax returns filed in 2013 reported income of more than $5 million. That\'s an even smaller fraction — about 0.02 percent of all earners. But Trump made it worse for himself in this new description. The prepared remarks for his speech read, \"She wants to raise taxes on African-American owned businesses to as much as nearly 50 percent.\" This is important to note, because he then ad-libs and changes the meaning of the sentence by adding \"more than they\'re paying now.\" That means instead of saying they will be taxed at 50 percent, they will be taxed at a rate almost 50 percent higher than they are currently. That’s a different assertion. Experts told us it’s difficult to find anything in Clinton’s plan that telegraphs such a hefty increase. Leonard Burman, director at the Tax Policy Center, said the effective tax rate for the highest-earning self-employed people would only go up by about 7 percent. If Trump were referring to corporations, which are affected by the rise in tax rates on capital gains and dividends, the marginal effective tax rate on new corporate investment would still go up by less than 10 percent. Williams further noted that Clinton’s proposed \"Buffett Rule\" requiring people with income greater than $1 million to pay a minimum 30 percent tax rate could theoretically boost a person’s tax by more than 50 percent. But the conditions would have to be specific, so that result probably wouldn’t bump tax rates on business income by 50 percent. Her proposed 28 percent cap on the value of tax preferences — think credits, deductions, exemptions and so forth — also doesn’t appear likely to produce such a dramatic change. \"There might be an odd case in which that would boost taxes a lot but nothing pops into my brain,\" Williams said. He added that it’s difficult to be certain absolutely no one would face such an increase, but \"it doesn\'t look like any of (Clinton’s) plans could increase a person\'s tax bill by half.\" Our ruling Trump said Clinton \"wants to raise taxes on African-American owned businesses to as much as nearly 50 percent more than they\'re paying now.\" Putting aside the irrelevance of the comment about African-Americans, the campaign never specified exactly how Clinton’s tax plan would do that to anyone. Clinton has proposed some tax increases on higher earners, but barring an extremely unusual case, nothing she has proposed approaches boosting taxes by almost 50 percent. We rate the statement False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Donald Trump, Manchester, N.H., speech, Aug. 25, 2016 U.S. Treasury Department Office of Tax Analysis, \"Methodology to Identify Small Businesses and Their Owners,\" August 2011 U.S. Census Bureau, \"Women are Leading the Rise of Black-Owned Businesses,\" Feb. 26, 2016 Tax Policy Center, \"An Analysis of Hillary Clinton’s Tax Proposals,\" March 3, 2016 PolitiFact, \"Donald Trump wrongly says Hillary Clinton wants to raise taxes on the middle class,\" Aug. 5, 2016 PolitiFact, \"Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton plan would tax small businesses at nearly 50 percent,\" Aug. 10, 2016 Wall Street Journal, \"The Potential Pros and Cons of Clinton’s Small Business Standard Tax Deduction,\" Aug. 23, 2016 Time, \"Donald Trump: Black Voters Are a ‘Focal Point’ of Campaign,\" Aug. 25, 2016 Heavy, \"Full Transcript of Donald Trump Speech in Manchester, New Hampshire,\" Aug. 25, 2016 Interview with Josh Schwerin, Clinton spokesman, Aug. 26, 2016 Interview with Roberton Williams, Tax Policy Center fellow, Aug. 26, 2016 Interview with Leonard Burman, Tax Policy Center director, Aug. 26, 2016 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Joshua Gillin ![](\\" mugs-mug- independentgroup__________________3/98605b4996e42408507987c4affd735f.jpg\\") ![](\\" mugs-mug- independentgroup__________________3/d34069b2fffce57ddf492536b7c1e859.jpg\\") FreedomJunkshun.com stated on November 6, 2017 in a headline: \"Supreme Court issues its first bench warrant ever.\" ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Susan Areson • November 9, 2017 ![](\\" mugs-mug- independentgroup__________________3/98605b4996e42408507987c4affd735f.jpg\\") ![](\\" mugs-mug- independentgroup__________________3/d34069b2fffce57ddf492536b7c1e859.jpg\\") React365.com stated on November 7, 2017 in an Internet post: Says the University of Florida \"requests to cancel rivalry 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We die, y’all silent.\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Joshua Gillin • October 12, 2017 ![](\\" ![](\\" Bloggers stated on October 9, 2017 in a headline: \"President Trump signs executive order stripping NFL of ‘non-profit’ status.\" ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Joshua Gillin • October 10, 2017 ![](\\" mugs-mug- independentgroup__________________3/98605b4996e42408507987c4affd735f.jpg\\") ![](\\" mugs-mug- independentgroup__________________3/d34069b2fffce57ddf492536b7c1e859.jpg\\") AsAmericanAsApplePie.org stated on October 8, 2017 in a headline: \"Jason Aldean gig canceled after he sells out to liberals on ‘SNL’.\" ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Joshua Gillin • October 10, 2017 ### Trump\'s False claim Hillary Clinton wants to raise taxes on African- American businesses 50 percent * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on September 29, 2024 in X posts: A biolab caught fire in Georgia right before the 2024 election. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • October 1, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 29, 2024 in a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania: Vice President Kamala Harris “even wants to legalize fentanyl.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Amy Sherman • October 1, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" House Majority PAC stated on September 9, 2024 in a television ad: Laurie Buckhout is “trying to get to Congress to pass a national abortion ban, allowing politicians to ban abortions with no exceptions and prosecute women if they get an abortion, treating women right here like criminals.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Paul Specht • October 1, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump Jr. stated on September 9, 2024 in a post: “Less than three months ago, Kamala Harris and her administration blocked 300,000 unvetted Haitian migrants from being deported out of our country.\" ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on September 30, 2024 in an X post: Photo shows President Joe Biden lounging on the beach \"while towns all over America were being wiped out” by Hurricane Helene. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Samantha Putterman • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on September 30, 2024 in in social media posts: “Biden Announces: ‘2.4 billion more to Ukraine’ but ‘no more aid for Hurricane Helene.’” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 24, 2024 in a post: “Olympic boxer Imane Khelif fails gender test, stripped of all titles, lifetime ban and $25 million prize money revoked!” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Grace Abels • September 30, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 30, 2024 in a press conference in Georgia: Georgia Gov. 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Says Hillary Clinton wants to raise taxes on AfricanAmerican owned businesses to as much as nearly 50 percent more than They are paying now