Is Steve Bannon about to betray America's wealthy and push for a tax hike?

The first six months of a presidency are traditionally the best time to pass major legislation and reforms. This is normally because the president has control of the House, Senate and fresh from electoral success- has high approval ratings.

But since taking over the White House in January, Donald Trump, with sagging approval ratings and divided Republicans, has struggled with getting any major policy through congress.

Two principal areas of reform have been aimed at healthcare and taxes.

Trump's efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare have hit various stumbling blocks, with Democrats refusing to lend any support to reform, and Republicans sorely split on how best to implement change.

Lengthy delays getting Obamacare turned around means that tax reform is being pushed back further and further.

The Trump team plan to have the biggest shake-up in taxes for more than 30 years, with changes to business rates, simplifying tax brackets and repealing the death tax.

When the White House revealed their plans in the spring, the one-page document stated that it wanted to cut down the seven-different tax bracket currently in place to just three.

As it stands, the taxable income rates vary depending on income from 10% up to 39.6%.

Trump's plans would see this cut down to three brackets of 10%, 25% and 35%.

However, a report from Axios has revealed that Steve Bannon, one of Trump's closest aides and considered an alt-right radical, is pushing for the top percentage bracket which applies to those individuals earning $418,400, to be increased to the 40s, a move that goes against the psyche of many Republicans.

The counterintuitive idea that goes against established conservative thinking on tax is considered to be a classic posture by Bannon who styles himself as iconoclast of America's ruling elite.

However, Trump's promise to drop corporate tax rate to 15% from the current 35% would considerably soften the blow for many in the top tax bracket even if their income tax went up.

The largest major tax reforms came in 1986 under Ronald Reagan which took two years to piece together and pass.

Indeed, there are serious concerns that the political difficulties in replacing Obamacare means that similar issues could beset tax changes.

Democrats look set to staunchly oppose any proposals put forward, leaving the White House to be the driving force behind the plans to ensure that all Republicans rally behind it.

But before any changes to tax, a budget needs to be passed, and divisions over welfare and defence spending are making the task all the more difficult.

On top of passing a budget, as long as the healthcare bill remains in play, little work will actually be devoted to taxes.

And finally, the biggest concern is that of time.

Reagan's reforms had two long years of deals and debates, Trump's plans look set to begin in earnest in the early autumn, which would leave barely a year to finalise and complete the plans before the midterms in November 2018.

The view on Capitol Hill is that if the bill isn't passed by the midterms, it may never see the light of day.