How One Mega-Donor Could Save $2.3 Billion Under Romney’s Tax Plan

By Travis Waldron/Think Progress

The $100 million that billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson pledged to donate to Mitt Romney will turn out to be a good investment if the Republican nominee wins the presidential election in November, a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund found. Thanks to Romney’s tax proposals, which call for massive tax cuts for the rich, corporate tax reforms that willencourage the offshoring of profits, and the elimination of certain investment taxes, Adelson could personally save more than $2 billion in taxes, according to CAPAF Director of Fiscal Reform Seth Hanlon.

Romney’s tax plan would help Adelson in the following ways:

• Cut top tax rates, saving Adelson approximately $1.5 million on his annual compensation as chief executive of his casino company.

• Maintain the special low rates on dividends, potentially saving Adelson nearly $120 million on a single year’s worth of dividends, more than enough to recoup his political donations.

• Maintain the special low rates on capital gains, allowing Adelson to make back his political donations in capital gains tax cuts just by selling a fraction of his stock.

• Provide a tax windfall of an estimated $1.2 billion to Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., on untaxed profits from its Asian casinos, as well as a tax exemption for future overseas profits. Adelson’s casinos already enjoy a special foreign tax exemption from the Chinese administrative region of Macau, and Gov. Romney would make those foreign profits exempt from U.S. taxes as well.

• Eliminate the estate tax, potentially providing a staggering $8.9 billion windfall to Adelson’s heirs.

Romney’s corporate tax reforms would also provide Adelson’s casino company approximately$1.2 billion in tax breaks on overseas profits and $565 million from Romney’s proposed shift to a territorial tax system. Adelson’s share of that, the report says, would be upward of $900 million, nine times what he pledged to spend to get Romney to the White House.

While Romney’s tax plan would further enrich billionaires like Adelson, it would have to raise taxes on middle class families by as much as $2,000 if Romney were to keep his plan to maintain current levels of revenue.