The Latest: Tax plan cuts top rate from 39.6 to 35 percent
By Associated Press
Apr 26, 2017 12:47 PM CDT
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, right, and National Economic Director Gary Cohn, arrive in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 26, 2017. President Donald Trump is proposing dramatically reducing the taxes paid by corporations big and small in an overhaul his administration...   (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump's tax overhaul (all times EDT):

1:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump wants to simplify the personal tax code by cutting rates and eliminating deductions used by more affluent Americans.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn says the plan would cut the top income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. It also would reduce the number of personal income tax brackets to three from seven. The new tax rates would be 10 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent.

The plan would double the standard deduction for married couples to $24,000, while keeping deductions for charitable giving and mortgage interest payments. The plan would trim other deductions used by high-income Americans, including state and local tax payments.

It would also repeal the estate tax, the catch-all alternative minimum tax and the 3.8 percent tax on investment income from President Barack Obama's health care law.

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8:50 a.m.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (mih-NOO'-shin) says President Donald Trump's tax plan will amount to — in Mnuchin's words — "the biggest tax cut" and the "largest tax reform" in U.S. history.

Mnuchin gave that description during a speech in Washington on Wednesday morning. The White House is set to release the broad outlines of Trump's proposed overhaul later in the day.

Trump wants cuts for individuals and businesses, even as the government struggles with mounting debt. The president is trying to make good on promises to bring jobs and prosperity to the middle class.

The top tax rate for individuals would fall by a few percentage points, from 39.6 percent to the "mid-30s." That's according to an official familiar with the plan. The official wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the plan before Trump's announcement, and spoke on condition of anonymity.

White House officials already have said the top corporate tax rate would drop from 35 percent to 15 percent under Trump's plan.