Tax Plan Answers

Background

Tax Plan Answers is a website that ostensibly provided answers to questions about changes to tax law made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which was enacted into law during the first Trump administration. ⁵ Generally, the answers and information that the project features reflected left-of-center and Democratic Party positions regarding the legislation, and in that vein, the project featured links to material published by organizations including the Tax Policy Center, the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, Health Affairs, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the Center for American Progress. 6 ⁴

For instance, the website claimed that though some lower income earners may find that they initially received a relative tax cut, that by 2027, the law would result in a majority of Americans paying more in taxes; and that since the law eliminated the requirement to purchase health insurance, millions fewer individuals would purchase insurance, meaning that the costs of such insurance may therefore rise. 6

As of May 2026, the Tax Plan Answers project appears to be inactive. Its last social media posts published on its official X.com (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook pages dated to April 16, 2018. ^{2 3}

Website

The Tax Plan Answers website featured advocacy material that made claims about how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 would apply to individuals, small businesses, and corporations, often arguing that the law would adversely impact low-income earners, provide advantages to high-income earners and large companies, and ultimately cost the government billions of dollars. ⁷

For instance, regarding individuals, the website described how the law has changed individual tax rates, particularly for high-income earners, and claimed that such changes in rates would cost the federal government $1.2 trillion. The website also described how the law changed the applicability of the federal estate tax, and claimed that because of the higher financial threshold in the law, fewer individuals and households would pay the tax, which the project claimed would cost the government $83 billion. ⁷

Similarly, regarding small businesses and corporations, the website featured material that includes claims that the law was advantageous “mostly to the rich.” For instance, the website claimed that the law’s changes to the 20 percent pass-through deduction for small businesses was not available to all small businesses, that determining eligibility to take the deduction was complicated, and that the change in law would cost the government $414 billion. Additionally, the website claimed that changes in the law regarding the treatment of corporate foreign profits would encourage corporations to move business operations abroad and cost the government $223 billion. ⁷

In addition to its ostensibly informational sections about the effects and implications of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Tax Plan Answers website also featured a “Resources” page, which included links to material published by left-of-center organizations such as the Tax Policy Center, the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, Health Affairs, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Center for American Progress, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. ⁴

The Tax Plan Answers website featured a page outlining how individual Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate voted on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, including separate lists for each party in each respective body with affirmative votes in one column and negative votes in the other. ⁸

Parent Organization

Tax Plan Answers was a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a left-of-center 501(c)(4) funding and fiscal sponsorship organization, which is managed by the Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Arabella Advisors (now Sunflower Services). ¹ 9

The Sixteen Thirty Fund is a left-of-center lobbying and advocacy organization founded in 2008, which often operates in tandem with its 501(c)(3) charitable affiliate, the New Venture Fund, which provides similar funding and fiscal sponsorship services to aligned organizations. According to its founding documents, the Sixteen Thirty Fund was created with seed funding from Americans United for Change, ACORN, USAction, the Sierra Club, and Working America. 10 9 11

In turn, Arabella Advisors, which was founded in 2005 by Eric Kessler, a former Clinton administration and League of Conservation Voters staffer, is a philanthropic consultancy that guides the strategy, advocacy, investing, and management of multiple left-of-center nonprofits and individuals. ¹² 13 9 13 In 2025, it reorganized into Sunflower Services. ¹⁴