Highlighted areas show what parts of President Trump’s 2005 tax return could have been affected by the new tax plan. 
 
 President Trump could cut his tax bills by more than $1.1 billion, including saving tens of millions of dollars in a single year, under his proposed tax changes, a New York Times analysis has found. 
 
 On Wednesday, the White House announced a sweeping plan to cut a variety of taxes that would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. The estimate of Mr. Trump’s savings is based in part on information from his 2005 federal tax return. The analysis compares what his tax burden would be under current law with what it would be under the proposal. 
 
 Mr. Trump’s 2005 return is the most recent available publicly and was released in March by David Cay Johnston on the website DCReport.org. The Times’s figure also relies on an estimate of Mr. Trump’s net worth, calculated by the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index to be $2.86 billion. 
 
 “I don’t benefit. I don’t benefit,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday. “In fact, very, very strongly, as you see, I think there’s very little benefit for people of wealth.” 
 
 In fact, high-income earners like Mr. Trump are likely to benefit disproportionately if the White House proposal becomes law. The estimates, calculated with the help of Robert Willens, an accounting expert, and Stephen Breitstone, a tax lawyer, provide a view into precisely how. 
 
 Savings of about $1.1 billion from repealing the estate tax 
 
 Though it would not be reflected on his income tax return, Mr. Trump’s proposal to eliminate the estate tax would generate the largest tax savings. If his assets — reportedly valued at $2.86 billion — were transferred after his death under today’s rules, his estate would be taxed at about 40 percent. Repealing the federal estate tax could save his family about $1.1 billion, though it could still be subject to New York estate taxes. 
 
 Savings of $31 million from repealing the alternative minimum tax 
 
 Line 45 of Mr. Trump’s 2005 tax return shows he paid $31.3 million because of the alternative minimum tax. 
 
 The decades-old alternative minimum tax is meant to prevent America’s wealthiest from using deductions to pay very low or no federal income tax. In 2005, it accounted for about 80 percent of Mr. Trump’s overall income tax payment. His plan to repeal the tax would save him $31.3 million. 
 
 Savings of about $16 million from taxing certain types of business income at 25 percent 
 
 Lines 12 and 17 of Mr. Trump’s tax return show the income he earned from businesses, rental real estate and other kinds of business partnerships, totaling $109.76 million. 
 
 Mr. Trump’s proposed changes could allow individuals to qualify for a significantly reduced tax rate of 25 percent on certain types of income they receive through business partnerships and similar entities. That is up from the original proposal in April of 15 percent, but far lower than the top tax rates currently faced by high-income earners of 39.6 percent. 
 
 Mr. Trump could save as much as $6.2 million on business income and $9.8 million on income from real estate and other kinds of partnerships under this plan, compared with his tax burden under current law. (In 2005, much of this taxable income was offset by a $103.2 million write-down in business losses.) 
 
 The proposal released Wednesday “contemplates” that Congress will adopt measures to prevent the wealthy from recharacterizing their income to take advantage of the new, lower rate and avoid the top personal rate. If that happens, it could have a big effect on Mr. Trump’s tax bill. 
 
 Savings of about $0.5 million from cutting the highest tax rate 
 
 Lines 7, 8a and 9a show $10.79 million in wages, taxable interest and ordinary dividends that Mr. Trump earned in 2005. 
 
 The proposal to reduce the highest tax rate to 35 percent from 39.6 percent would save high-income earners similar to Mr. Trump a relatively small amount compared with the repeal of the alternative minimum tax. The $500,000 in savings is a rough estimate because Mr. Trump has not specified income levels for his proposed tax brackets. 
 
 Increase of $3 million to $5 million in taxes from repealing most deductions 
 
 Line 40 shows Mr. Trump itemized his deductions instead of using the standard tax deduction, claiming $17 million. 
 
 Mr. Trump would probably lose most of the deductions he reported in 2005. Depending on his effective tax rate under the proposal, Mr. Trump could pay roughly $3 million to $5 million more in taxes. ||||| Looking for news you can trust? 
 
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 President Donald Trump revealed an outline of his big tax reform plan on Wednesday. It’s light on specifics and even lighter on details about how the administration might pay for what it describes as the “biggest tax cut” in US history. But one thing is perfectly clear: Trump and his family could save billions of dollars. Here are four ways Trump’s tax proposals would help people named Trump. 
 
 1. Eliminating the Estate Tax 
 
 The estate tax, which applies to wealth that deceased people pass on to their heirs, only affects the richest of the richest—roughly 0.2 percent of Americans. Individuals worth at least $5.45 million (or married couples worth at least $10.9 million) will owe estate taxes after their deaths. Currently, assets in excess of this $5.45 million exemption are taxed at 40 percent. President Donald Trump claims to be worth $10 billion, so his heirs could save billions if the estate tax disappears. 
 
 2. Eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax 
 
 The alternative minimum tax requires certain taxpayers to calculate how much tax they owe twice—once using the regular income tax rules and again under AMT rules. Originally, the AMT was structured to prevent wealthy people from abusing the system by avoiding paying their fair share of taxes. We don’t know much about Trump’s taxes, but his 2005 returns, which were obtained by MSNBC, indicate the he earned $153 million that year. Without the AMT, Trump apparently would have paid just $7 million in taxes, according to the New York Times—a tax rate less than 5 percent. But the AMT forced him to pony up an additional $31 million that year, raising his tax rate to about 25 percent. Asked at a Wednesday press briefing how eliminating the AMT would impact Trump’s tax liability, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin dodged the question and abruptly ended the briefing. 
 
 3. Slashing Tax Rates for Pass-Through Corporations 
 
 Many businesses are structured as pass-through companies, meaning that rather than filing taxes as corporations, they “pay taxes through the personal income tax code,” as the Times explains. Trump wants to cut the rate for pass-throughs (as well as for corporations) to just 15 percent, which will certainly enrich anyone named Trump. Since the Trump Organization is a collection of pass-throughs, the organization itself isn’t subject to income tax. Instead, the owners are taxed individually. So Trump and his children would only have to pay 15 percent on their earnings from the family organization in taxes, much lower than the current top rate of 39.6 percent. 
 
 4. Lowering the Individual Income Tax Rate 
 
 Trump wants to eliminate several tax brackets and lower the top individual tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. Under the new plan, there will be three tax brackets: 10 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent. That could be a huge giveaway to the Trumps and other wealthy Americans who make millions of dollars each year. ||||| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email 
 
 President-elect Donald Trump, who won the hearts and minds of millions of working-class voters, may help deliver a multibillion-dollar bonanza to America’s wealthiest families. 
 
 The Manhattan businessman’s election offers congressional Republicans their best chance in years to eliminate the estate tax, which he and others call the “death tax.” Abolishing it would save more than $20 billion a year for the millionaires and billionaires the tax applies to -- including the Trump family and several of the people he has chosen for his administration. 
 
 “A lot of families go through hell over the death tax,” Trump said during his presidential run. The tax’s opponents say it forces some families to sell their farms or small businesses in order to pay up. Studies suggest that only a small percentage of estates fall into those categories. 
 
 Wiping out the estate tax has been a longstanding goal for Republican lawmakers, and the party’s sweeping victories in the 2016 election have brought them thrillingly close to achieving it. But there are potential stumbling blocks. Their narrow margin in the Senate leaves few votes to spare. And Trump may have a hard time reconciling his populist campaign themes with a tax break for America’s richest. 
 
 Under federal law, the tax, which is levied at a 40 percent rate, applies only to estates worth more than $5.45 million for individuals and $10.9 million for couples. Estates worth less than that may be passed on to heirs tax-free. Last year, just 0.2 percent of estates of people who died were subject to the tax, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington-based research group that’s a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. 
 
 ‘The Forgotten Guy’ 
 
 Trump “campaigned as someone who’s going to help the middle class, the forgotten guy, but every policy he’s advocating -- huge tax cuts for the wealthy, estate tax -- all for the top .001 percent,” said Representative Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from Manhattan. 
 
 America’s wealthiest “hit the jackpot” with Trump’s election, he said. 
 
 Since Trump’s election, House Ways & Means Chairman Kevin Brady and Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch have repeated their desire to repeal the estate tax. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have long supported its elimination. Passage in the Republican-led House is assured. In the Senate, a decade-long estate tax repeal can pass with 50 of 52 expected GOP senators under a special mechanism called reconciliation, while 60 votes could end it for good. 
 
 “The death tax on family farms, small businesses, ranches and estates has crippled hard-working families for far too long,” Hatch told Bloomberg News in a statement. 
 
 In 2013, 120 of the 3,780 estates subject to the tax were farms and businesses, according to the Tax Policy Center. That’s a little more than 3 percent. The same year, estates valued above $20 million paid an average tax rate of 18.8 percent -- many achieve a lower effective rate through tax-planning strategies, including giving some of their fortune away to charity. 
 
 Windfall to Leaders 
 
 At that 18.8 percent effective rate, repealing the tax would be a large windfall to the leaders-in-waiting of the Trump administration. 
 
 Trump’s estate would save $564 million, based on his estimated net worth of $3 billion. Trump disagrees with that net-worth estimate, which Bloomberg News compiled in July; he has said his net worth exceeds $10 billion. If so, his savings would increase -- to as much as $1.9 billion at an 18.8 percent effective tax rate. Trump’s transition team didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. 
 
 Trump’s Commerce secretary choice, Wilbur Ross, might save about $545 million, based on his estimated net worth of $2.9 billion. Ross is the chairman and chief strategy officer of WL Ross & Co. LLC. Richard DeVos, the father-in-law of Trump’s education secretary choice Betsy DeVos, might save $900 million, based on his estimated $4.8 billion net worth. Richard DeVos is co-founder of Alticor Inc., the parent of closely held direct-seller Amway Corp. Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick to head the Small Business Administration, and her husband, Vince McMahon, who together founded World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., might save more than $250 million based on their shared net worth of at least $1.35 billion. The nominees’ net worth estimates were compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 
 
 Repealing the tax would also benefit Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, who held shares in CIT Group Inc. worth more than $100 million as of Dec. 2. And Gary Cohn, who is said to be Trump’s choice for his chief economic policy adviser, would leave his position as president of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. with $266 million of stock and awards amassed during his years at the investment bank, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 
 
 Early Test 
 
 The looming estate-tax debate may be an early test of how Republicans deal with the electorate’s populist-over-elite mood. In interviews, Republican senators and congressmen played down the tension between Trump’s populist image and repealing the estate tax. 
 
 “Every president who’s ever had the office is going to have tension between their campaign and reality,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “How he handles that tension is up to him. But there’s nothing new about a president campaigning one way and having to govern another.” 
 
 Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said on Thursday he expects an estate tax repeal to be included in the budget reconciliation beginning in April. Others want it to be part of a comprehensive tax overhaul package. GOP aides said many are waiting for guidance from Trump. 
 
 Some conservatives caution that upper-end tax breaks are politically problematic. 
 
 “Trump would do well to craft a tax-reform agenda that is populist in a very visible, obvious way that delivers tangible gains to middle-income voters,” said Reihan Salam, executive editor of the National Review, a conservative magazine. “I believe that coming right out of the gate and focusing on high-end tax cuts might prove costly.” 
 
 Democratic Opposition 
 
 Democrats overwhelmingly oppose reducing the tax — presidential nominee Hillary Clinton campaigned on raising its rate to 65 percent for couples worth $1 billion. “I’m against” repealing the tax, said incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “To do it would sure help out the wealthiest few in America.” 
 
 GOP leaders are thus wary of over-promising. “Every tax bill is going to have a lot of tension and a lot of problems because the Democrats are not real enthused about things,” Hatch said in an interview. “We’ll just have to see. But we may be able to do some things.” 
 
 The politics of repeal may depend on which description of the tax reaches the public. A Gallup poll in March found that 54 percent of Americans favored eliminating it when told it’s a tax paid when a person dies. But researchers have found that people are more likely to support it -- and to want it to be increased -- when told who it affects. 
 
 “It becomes a question of how effective Democrats are at reframing that issue beyond this notion of a death tax,” said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. 
 
 — With assistance by Brendan Coffey
– It's hard to know for sure, but President Trump may save a pretty penny if his administration's "once in a generation" tax proposal goes into effect, despite Trump insisting earlier this week the plan is "not good for me." The New York Times put Trump's estimated net worth of $2.86 billion and his 2005 federal tax return—one of the few publicly available pieces of detailed info on the president's finances—up against the current tax law and the new plan. Its findings: The president and his estate could save more than $1 billion. Experts commissioned by the Times postulate the benefits would mostly come from the elimination of the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax. Under the current estate tax, Trump's estate would take a 40% hit following an assets transfer after his death. In what it called a potential "bonanza" for Trump and his Cabinet members, Bloomberg last year estimated Trump's family would save $564 million by dumping the estate tax; the Times figures it closer to $1.1 billion, minus New York state taxes. Getting rid of the AMT, which made up about 80% of Trump's income tax payment in the 2005 return, could save him more than $31 million. Writing for the Washington Post, Philip Bump notes Trump's "vague articulation" on how he's looking out for the little guy, not the ones with fat wallets, "is not borne out by the details." Fox News offers the winners and losers under the tax proposal.