Infrastructure Tax Credit

Infrastructure tax credit

December 15, 2016 | By Keith Martin in Washington, DC

A Trump infrastructure credit could subject returns of infrastructure investors to a negative 113% income tax rate.

Two Trump economic advisers, incoming Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and economics professor Peter Navarro, suggested in October that a Trump administration might allow an 82% tax credit to be claimed on equity investments in new infrastructure projects.

Martin Sullivan of Tax Notes magazine calculated that the tax credit could leave equity investors in new infrastructure projects with significantly more tax shelter than the taxes they would have to pay on their earnings from such projects. He assumed a corporate tax rate of 15% and earnings commensurate with a 9% internal rate of return.