Hasta La Gadget!

President Donald Trump’s tax proposal would likely amount to a fat tax cut for Trump himself.

The proposal, unveiled on Wednesday afternoon by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn ― both alumni of Goldman Sachs ― offers more than a few breaks for the country’s millionaires. 

At least three of these changes would almost certainly benefit the president or his family ― the elimination of the alternative minimum tax or AMT, the repeal of the estate tax, and a reduction on the tax rate for small business owners.

We know almost nothing about the current state of Trump’s personal taxes or that of his family business. The president could make it clear exactly how he and his family would benefit from his tax plan by releasing his tax returns, but he has consistently refused to do so, saying it’s impossible because he is under audit. (The head of the IRS said last year that being audited did not prevent an individual from releasing returns.)

At Wednesday’s press conference, Mnuchin said he didn’t know details about the president’s tax returns, so he couldn’t say how the tax plan would affect Trump and his family. 

After he won the presidency, Trump said his victory meant his lack of financial transparency was no longer an issue. 

What we do know about the president’s taxes comes from two leaked, partial copies of his returns from 1995 and 2005. The partial personal return from 1995, obtained by the New York Times in October 2016, showed that Trump took a $916 million loss. That massive deduction might have enabled him to avoid paying taxes for almost two decades.

The 2005 partial personal return obtained by David Cay Johnston and MSNBC, however, showed that Trump paid $38 million in taxes on $150 million in income that year.

Trump’s effective personal tax rate would have been a mere 4 percent if not for the alternative minimum tax. The AMT is meant to increase taxes on generally rich people ― typically those making at least $200,000 a year ― who otherwise wouldn’t pay that much due to particular deductions or accounting arrangements.

In other words, the AMT did exactly what it was supposed to do to Trump in 2005: soak him. Trump is now proposing to eliminate the one tax we know significantly increased his tax burden.

Trump is not by any means alone in his loathing of the AMT. Plenty of other Republicans and rich people would certainly like to see it gone, as would none other than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Sanders’ proposal to eliminate the AMT, however, comes as part of a plan that would dramatically increase taxes on wealthy Americans to expand the social safety net.

Not only do Trump’s 2005 returns indicate that he may personally benefit from gutting the AMT, but he is not proposing any broader increase in taxes on the rich and has proposed a budget and health care legislation that would gut social programs.

Trump’s heirs would also presumably benefit from the proposed repeal of the estate tax, the cut the government takes from an inheritance greater than $5.5 million that Trump and other Republicans like to call the “death tax.” Republicans have been trying to get rid of it for decades.

The move would essentially benefit the relatives of millionaires and billionaires. For instance, the tax rate for rich heirs receiving inheritances is 40 percent ― so if Trump is, in fact, worth $10 billion as he claims, his tax plan is a $4 billion gift to his family.

The tax proposal would also lower taxes on business owners who structure their companies as what are called pass-through entities, which means their business income gets taxed at personal income rates. Like many real estate partnerships, Trump’s family business is a pass-through entity and would benefit from a reduction in pass-through rates. Trump’s tax plan cuts pass-through rates to 15 percent. Currently, the top personal income tax bracket is taxed at a 39.6 percent rate.

The Trump plan also aims to provide “tax relief for families with child and dependent care expenses,” but offered no further details on how that would work. Judging by Trump’s child care proposals during the campaign, even this benefit would likely confer bigger returns to Trump and his millionaire peers.

At his daughter Ivanka’s prompting, Trump outlined over the summer a benefit that would allow parents to deduct the cost of child care and other related expenses from their taxes. This kind of benefit naturally accrues to higher-earning parents who have higher child care expenses and higher tax liability.

One analysis found that a typical family of four with two kids in an upper-income neighborhood would get a $7,000 tax break from Trump’s child care tax break. A lower-income family would get around $5 a year.

Under the plan Trump floated, a stay-at-home parent ― like Melania ― could get a deduction for taking care of a dependent under age 13.

This story has been updated with additional information about Trump’s tax plan.

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She’s played a “summer catch.” A love interest. A leading lady in an action movie. A horror movie victim. But none of these roles have really given Jessica Biel the opportunity to truly excel, which is why her latest on-screen character is a welcome sight.  

In her first lead television role since her run as Mary Camden on “7th Heaven,” Biel plays Cora Tannetti on USA’s “The Sinner,” an upcoming eight-part series that premiered its pilot episode at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday night. The thriller, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Petra Hammesfahr, delves into the mystery behind Cora’s unexplained killing of a man on a public beach, surrounded by her husband, child and dozens of witnesses. What made this seemingly doting mother and wife do something so out of character? And why is it that we don’t fully trust her? “The Sinner” will, hopefully, explain it all when it debuts Aug. 2. 

Bill Pullman plays the detective working to uncover Cora’s motives, while Christopher Abbott portrays Cora’s husband, Mason. 

But it’s Biel who went all in for her role ― made clear by the applause she received following the Tribeca screening. Director Antonio Campos (”Christine,” “Simon Killer”) envelops the actress in dreamlike shots before zooming in for close-ups, letting her physical emotion easily slip through the screen. Her performance is committed, solid, and might be her best yet. 

“Obviously, she’s a terribly complex and complicated person,” Biel, who’s also an executive producer on the series, said of Cora during the post-screening Q&A. “Just in the pilot we get to see a tiny bit of what’s to come … in her mind and in her past and everything. That was interesting, for me, to think about playing somebody like this.”

Biel admitted that the role was a bit daunting, due to the fact that Cora is, well, a murderer, and so hard to read; she wasn’t sure which direction to take the character at any given time. 

“The tracking of what she knows, what she remembers, what she thinks she remembers, what is a lie, what is told to her and when she’s lying [was difficult],” Biel explained. “It’s very complicated. We would constantly be going, ‘Wait, is this a moment where she’s telling the truth or is this a moment where she’s lying? Or is she telling the truth, but it’s actually a lie that we don’t know?’ So there’s this weaving of this denial and this shame and all these things,” Biel added, joking that there’s a lot of “fake news” in Cora’s head.

“It was very, very tricky to kind of remember and to keep it in line and that’s what I’ll be facing as we go forward,” the actress said.  

So far, only the pilot has been completed, so the cast and crew will return to film the remaining seven episodes. The hope is to create a series that analyzes the human psyche and investigates what we, as people, are capable of. 

“When I read the book, every step of the way for me was a shock, and I just feel like nothing can shock me anymore,” Biel said. “You know, like, I’ve seen it all, there’s nothing that weird or that dark. We’ve all seen it all, I think in a sense, the way we’re exposed and have access to everything. But every time there was a surprise, it was a genuine surprise for me and it just felt incredibly rare to find a piece of material where you didn’t expect every twist and turn every way. And then, generally, like, selfishly, I just wanted to play that girl and get to be a little nuts.”

“The Sinner” debuts on USA at 10 p.m. on Aug. 2.

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WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump has “no intention” of releasing his tax returns, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday.

“The president has no intention. The president has released plenty of information and I think has given more financial disclosure than anybody else. I think the American population has plenty of information on his taxes,” Mnuchin said at a White House press briefing, contradicting prior statements from the administration that the president would release his tax returns once they were audited by the IRS.

Mnuchin’s comments about the level of the president’s disclosure are blatantly false. During the campaign, Trump released a financial disclosure form as required by all presidential candidates. But he has not released any of his tax filings, as has been done by every major party nominee in the past 40 years. His tax returns would provide a much more comprehensive picture of his financial holdings, assets and charitable givings. Most importantly, they would reveal the effective rate of tax he pays on his income.

Such information would offer crucial context regarding Trump’s tax reform proposal that Mnuchin laid out at the White House on Wednesday. The plan, while similar to the one Trump unveiled during the campaign, calls for sharp reductions to both individual and corporate income tax rates ― a huge boon to wealthy Americans. The proposal would also repeal the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax ― which would save the wealthy real estate mogul and his family billions of dollars.

Democrats on Wednesday slammed Trump’s plan as an unpaid giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and again called on him to release his tax returns.

“President Trump should release his own tax returns if he wants to have any credibility in a debate about America’s tax code,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. “Let’s be clear, his ‘plan’ would add dramatically to the national deficit to fund a massive tax giveaway to corporations and millionaires.”

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(Reuters) – Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has canceled her speech planned for this week at the University of California’s Berkeley campus after a dispute with school officials, who feared violent protests, over whether a safe venue could be found.

“There will be no speech,” Coulter wrote in an email to Reuters on Wednesday in which she also criticized two conservative groups who had originally sponsored the event, saying they were no longer supporting her. “I looked over my shoulder and my allies had joined the other team,” she wrote.

“I have no sponsor, no lawyer, no court order,” she added. “I can’t vindicate constitutional rights on my own. I was just supposed to give the speech.”

Coulter, one of the best-known conservative commentators in the United States, had been scheduled to give a speech critical of pro-immigration policies on Thursday. She said she may nonetheless still visit the campus that day.

Last week, Berkeley officials said there was no safe venue at the campus on that date. They cited violent demonstrations by left-wing demonstrators in February hours before another right-wing media figure, Milo Yiannopoulos, was scheduled to speak.

Berkeley proposed that Coulter speak on May 2. Coulter said she could not make that date and accused the school of an effort to limit her audience, noting that it fell in a study week ahead of final exams.

On Tuesday, the Young America’s Foundation and the Berkeley College Republicans, which had organized the speech, sued university officials, accusing the public university of suppressing conservative speakers’ rights to free speech.

Later that day, Young America’s Foundation said in a statement it could no longer sponsor the speech, blaming Berkeley officials. It said they had not offered assurances that campus police would protect attendees from any violent protests, a charge the school denied.

“Berkeley should be ashamed for creating this hostile atmosphere,” the foundation’s statement said.

Dan Mogulof, a Berkeley spokesman, wrote in an email that the university had “heard nothing” from Coulter or the sponsors. He declined to comment further, writing that he had “no interest in communicating with her through the media.”

Mogulof also shared a letter sent to students on Wednesday by Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks in which he wrote that campus police had learned of threats of violence should the speech happen.

“This University has two non-negotiable commitments, one to Free Speech, the other to the safety of our campus community members, their guests, and the public,” he wrote.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Jonathan Allen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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If you haven’t heard of Ifetayo Ali-Landing yet, you may soon.

The 14-year-old cellist won first place in the 20th Annual Sphinx Competition’s junior division in February.  

The competition, which takes place in Detroit, Michigan, allows teens and college-aged black and Latino string players to compete amongst professional musicians. 

Ali-Landing came in second during last year’s competition, but a runner-up position didn’t sit well for the prodigy. 

“Last year I came in second place, which was great, but what I really wanted was first place, and this year I got it,” Ali-Landing, who transitioned from the violin to the cello at age four, told the Chicago Defender in February. 

Although Ali-Landing’s victory, which comes with a $10,000 award and the promise of solo appearances with major orchestras and an appearance on the national radio program From the Top, took place a couple of months ago, her performance only recently began making its rounds among black media outlets. 

Ali-Landing currently attends the Hyde-Suzuki Institute in Chicago. Keep killin’ them strings, girl. 

Watch her interview with the Sphinx following her win below: 

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