A day after a confrontation with Univision reporter Jorge Ramos at a press conference in Dubuque, Iowa, GOP-frontrunner Donald Trump turned his attention to a decidedly less sensational topic: tax code.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Trump said he would change and simplify the tax code. He took particular aim at hedge fund profits and said he would be fine if his policy increased his own tax obligation.
Bloomberg reporter John Heilemann asked Trump specifically about carried interest—tax fund managers’ cut of investment profits that’s currently taxed as capital gain, with a 20% rate, versus ordinary income, the top bracket of which is taxed at nearly 40%. “So you would want to tax carried interest in the same way that ordinary income is taxed?” Heilemann said.
“I would take carried interest out, and I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous,” Trump said. “I want to lower taxes for the middle class.”
Such a change would not just affect hedge fund folks, but would also impact people in limited real estate partnerships, which is particularly notable because Trump holds a stake in at least ten real estate limited partnerships.
Trump said he’s “ready” and “willing” to raise taxes on himself. “I’m ok with it.”
(Trump’s answer comes two days after his campaign dodged a similar question from Fortune.)
“You see my statements, I do very well,” Trump told Bloomberg. “I don’t mind paying some taxes. The middle class is getting clobbered in this country.”
