Posted on 12/02/2017 2:44:33 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Edited on 12/02/2017 2:54:27 PM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
Updated.
I calculated federal income taxes for two hypothetical working class couples filing jointly under the new senate proposal compared to current law, taking the standard deduction in each case (see the pdf at source).
The first working class family has a combined income of $100,000 and if my calculations are NOW correct would owe $10,948 in federal income taxes under current law with an effective tax rate of 10.9%.
Under the senate proposal, this family's federal income tax would be cut to $8,739 with an effective tax rate of 8.7%. This is a substantial tax cut.
The second working class family has a combined income of $60,000 and would owe $4,948 in federal income taxes under current law with an effective tax rate of 8.2%.
Under the senate proposal, this family's federal income tax would be cut to $3,939 with an effective tax rate of 6.6%. This is a very substantial tax cut.
The tax cuts are even more dramatic if these families have children and can take the $1650 tax credit per child (compared to the $1000 per under current law).
If each of these working class families above have two children they get a tax credit of $1650 X 2
So the family earning $100,000 gets $3300 credit leaving a tax bill of $5,439 or 5.54% eff rate.
The family earning $60,000 gets $3300 credit leaving a tax bill of $639 or 1.4% eff rate.
Very substantial cuts!
Working class families with two children, earning $55,000 or less owe no federal income tax at all.
This will allow the vast majority of "working class" families to receive a substantial tax cut by simply taking the standard deductions.
They should be proud they pay the most.
Thanks Jim and bump
“Morality is not unloading your tax problems on others. No one has a gun against our head making us stay here.”
I just knew I liked you!
P.S. For the rest of the world: There are conservatives in California.
“Hard for me to believe their federal taxes arent going up. Thats the whole point of getting rid of the state and local tax deductions - to raise revenue in order to offset the business tax cuts.”
exactly.
“Since individuals pay taxes not averages you need to factor in the loss of deductions like long-term medical expenses, SALT, mortgage interest, adoption credits, and others. Throw in the loss of one of these exemptions and your examples fall apart.”
exactly.
and what about this?
the standard deduction is being not quite doubled [for individuals, it would go from $6,350 to $12,000, and for married joint filers, it raises that deduction from $12,700 to $24,000], but then they are eliminating the individual personal exemptions [of $4,050 per person] for yourself, your spouse and your dependents; thereby, reducing the doubled standard deductions real net worth to $7,950 for singles [a real net increase of $1,600 from existing std deduction] and to $15,900 for joint filers [a real net increase of $3,900 from the current std deduction]. A couple with 2 children will have their $24,000 doubled standard deduction reduced by $16,200 for a real net reduction of $7,800. so they give with one hand but take away with the other. in addition, they are eliminating the extra deduction for those over 65 or blind.
Exclusions and exemptions.
The measure would repeal personal and dependency exemptions (which is $4,050 per individual in 2017), exclusions for employee achievement awards, employer education assistance, qualified tuition programs, dependent care assistance, qualified moving reimbursements, and adoption assistance. Contribution to Coverdell education savings accounts would be barred, but funds in existing accounts could be rolled over to 529 plans.
Deductions.
Certain deductions from gross income as well as itemized deductions would be eliminated. Deductions from gross income set to be axed include the alimony deduction (for divorce or separation agreements entered into after Dec. 31, 2017, student loan interest (although the Senate version would retain this deduction), interest on U.S. savings bonds redeemed for higher education, the moving expense deduction, the deduction for contributions to Archer medical savings accounts, out-of-pocket educator expenses, and expenses of performing artists and certain government officials.
Itemized deductions on the chopping block include the medical expense deduction, state and local income or sales taxes, the casualty and theft loss deduction (except for casualty losses in federally-declared disaster areas), and miscellaneous itemized deductions for tax return preparation and unreimbursed employee business expenses.
Tax credits.
The bill would repeal the credit for the elderly and permanently disabled, the credit for mortgage certificates, and the credit for plug-in electric vehicles. The bill would eliminate the lifetime learning credit by consolidating it into the American opportunity credit. The credit would be available for five years of higher education (instead of four years), but the amount in the fifth year would half the usual maximum (including the amount eligible for the 40 percent refundable portion of the credit).
You wrote they ought to get taxes back they didnt pay in because they paid sales tax. No different than the EIC.
Riddle me this, Batman...why should couples earning $150k in North Dakota pay higher federal taxes than a couple earning $150k in California?
Trump said there would be tax cuts for everybody. That’s not true for upper middle income folks in high tax states, who have relied on the deduction that’s being taken away. If you are fine with having them pay higher federal taxes, ok. I’m just pointing out that that is what is happening - and it’s not what Trump promised. He said major tax cuts for everybody, not tax increases for some.
That’s true. You won’t get a check from Uncle Sam if your child tax credits reduce your tax liability to zero or less.
My taxes may go down a bit but I am so angry at McConnell because he did not want to kill Obamacare.
Last year Obamacare kicked the Capital Gains Tax up. This year I changed jobs and my ESOP was hit with the higher tax so I paid almost $20K more than the lower rate. Since McConnell said in March he wanted to keep the new taxes and has been successful I lose that much money which was going to be placed in our savings account as part of our emergency fund when we retire in two years.
I was ripped off for almost $20K while some illegal or Democrat gets to buy a new car while mine are 12 years old or older.
President Trump’s giving us nice Christmas gift... thanks for running the numbers Jim....
Nobody is forcing anyone to keep living in a “High Tax State”.
Rubio fought to increase the CTC to $2000 and make it all refundable. It was shot down. Doing this would've meant raising the corporate tax rate above 20%. One consolation; apparently the IRS will now require valid SSNs for children to receive a CTC, something that wasn't required before and resulted in billions of dollars each year in fraud.
But, yes, I agree. If Americans perceive that they are getting less money than they did when the last party was running things, they'll put the last party back in power come 2018.
So you don’t deny that the GOP tax bill will raise federal taxes on people in high tax states. Most of the victims will be Republicans in those states - the upper middle class. You may think that’s fine, but trump promised tax relief for everybody.
This is the first time GOP has raised taxes on Americans since George “read my lips” Bush. He paid a price
Read my lips, the Republicans are the party of lower taxes and less government. Read my lips. But don’t look at the tax bill because the current version says something else
To be honest, I still can't find a definitive answer on whether or not the entire CTC will now be non-refundable or just the portion above the $1000 we already receive.
I'm being told elsewhere that there are other ways to measure happiness and prosperity than having more money to make the mortgage payments with and if we find ourselves struggling more to make ends meet than we used to, that's OK because "tax cuts for all" or something.
I will say this; if "tax cuts" result in Americans paying more in taxes (or having refundable credits taken away) they're not going to care one whit about abortion, or guns, or gay marriage, or whatever. In 2018, Democrats will run on "I'll fight to give you your refundable child tax credit back that Trump took away" and they'll win. They don't need to run on anything else.
The residents of those states have to vote out all those liberals that raised their taxes so high.
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