Posted on 09/27/2017 11:35:34 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
Congressional Republicans on Wednesday unveiled the framework for their long-awaited tax-reform plan, which simplifies the tax system and cuts rates for businesses -- while attempting to boost household incomes by nearly doubling the standard IRS deduction used by most Americans.
“Today, we move one step closer to fixing our broken tax code," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said. "This is our best opportunity in a generation to deliver real middle-class tax relief, create jobs here at home, and fuel unprecedented economic growth.”
The framework plan calls for increasing the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for families, which essentially doubles the amount of personal income that is tax-free.
Congressional Republicans describe the change as creating a larger “zero tax bracket.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“LOL!! I have my own spread I use for calculating my taxes that was off by $50 last year for my wife and I and $120 the year before (and I make well over 6 digits). The current tax brackets are 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6%. I can do my taxes which includes multiple rental properties and multiple other sources of income in less than 15 minutes. I know way more about taxes than you do. “
Thanks for getting back to me with the correct tax brackets!
LOL! I have excel spreadsheets and I once even stayed at a holiday inn.
And my wife retired as THE tax consultant for the CA Tax Franchise Board.
I have been doing my taxes and my family’s taxes for decades including trust and estate returns.
I’m not in favor of any group being taxed more.
The goal is to free up money to be invested in, and spur the economy.
The idea is to broaden the tax base and massively increase the federal tax receipts.
We are $20 trillion in debt. This means we are still going to have to facilitate the movement of cash from private entities to the federal government.
I think there are better ways out there to facilitate this, than using the IRS. The IRS is corrupt. It does need to go.
I am hoping to revisit these things when we have a more Conservative leadership in Congress. If we don’t get one, no president will be able to achieve what we want.
For now I think we’re in a position of having to take what we can get.
We are either going to have to back whatever we can get, or we will accomplish absolutely nothing under Trump.
I want the goals 100% attained too.
I still see 20% attainment to be moving toward that 100%.
If we reject this 20% improvement (or whatever the actual figure might turn out to be), then we remain at 0% of attaining our goal.
Which bracket did I say that was wrong, eh? Oh wait, I didn’t.
“Unless you have a million dollar mortgage, you are still better off. “
I only have a $210,000 mortgage and I will see an $8,000 increase in taxable income!
“FWIW - the median home price in TX, your backyard, is less than $170k, which means assuming $120k mortgage for a “starter” home (lower than median) is reasonable.”
My ‘backyard’ was Harris County.
The median price of homes currently listed in Harris County is $268,990.
You should be paying around $7k/year in interest, then (assuming 3.5%). You have no state income tax in TX so you aren't deducting that. Let's say your property tax is $5k (which is 2.5x what I'm paying on my $400k home). That puts you around the standard deduction. Unless you are donating a fortunate, in which case good on you, I don't see how you go up $8k (even ignoring the benefits you'll get from lower tax rates)
Oh man. You are all over the map. I know what you are trying to say. But, your premises and correlations are just badly mashed up. The median family income does not correlate with a median list price for a house. Many folks, especially low income wage earners live in apartments. I know you don’t mean to prove here that a family making $40K a year can buy a $368K house.
As I said, this is a silly discussion. Pointless really. You are suggesting that there are homeowners that don’t pay taxes anyway, so the changes in taxes don’t affect them.
YOU ARE RIGHT! But it doesn’t matter whether they own a home or not. If they don’t pay taxes today, they won’t pay taxes with the new plan. We will all get to support more people if the article is correct as even more people will fall off the contributor list and go on to the collector list.
I have ALWAYS firmly believed we should have a consumption tax EVERYONE then has skin in the game and K-street disappears!!!!
My home (interest and taxes) is about $18k. My 2016 did have a state tax deduction larger than normal due to a new car purchase pushing us up about $24k.
“Fantastic! More people taken off the tax roles who will be happy to vote for more free stuff at the next election. This will create a whole new crop of democrats.”
Exactly. All this does is advance socialism by having even less people pay taxes.
“The median family income does not correlate with a median list price for a house. “
I was not trying to correlate. Just trying to show that my county is not one of the ‘rich’ counties.
“You are suggesting that there are homeowners that don’t pay taxes anyway, so the changes in taxes don’t affect them.”
What I am trying to say is that this tax plan as written and lacking some details hits middle-class homeowners like me!
You do understand they are marginal brackets, not absolute brackets right? Let's say a married couple makes $200k today of taxable income (after all the deductions). Today (and rounding for simple math), the first 18k is taxed at 10%, then the next $60k is taxed at 15%, then the next 80k is taxed at 25% and then the next 47k is taxed at 28% (total fed due = $43k). In the new plan, it would be 12% on the first 78k, and 25% on the next $122k, or $40k in tax due, $3k less than today.
“But if fully implemented as it is written and intended, it would be GREAT for this country.”
Details as to why please.
“Which bracket did I say that was wrong, eh? Oh wait, I didn’t.”
Also, right now you hit the 15% early - now that goes down to 12%,
The 10% goes UP to 12%.
So your property tax is $11k (which is 5.1x my $400k home just outside Charlotte)? Because on $210k mortgage with 3.5% interest rate is only $7.3k per year in interest even if you didn’t pay it down at all ($210,000 *.035 = $7,300). I knew TX property taxes were higher but that is nuts!
Yes I do.
At the cusp a larger step results in crazier decisions.
Better to have more but smaller steps (kinda like The Calculus).
It’s not like we don’t have PCs to sort it out and run scenarios for intelligent decision making.
True. But decisions are made on tax brackets income falls in. The larger the ‘jumps’ in rates, the more impact.
For example, in deciding to withdraw from retirement accounts, a jump from 15% to 25% make it a bigger decision than a jump from 25% to 28%.
No, it doesn't.
I keep warning people about the New Jersey level of property taxation in Texas. All the Foghorn Leghorn bragging in the world won’t overcome a tax hit like that. Conservatives relocating who have some discretion as to where should look at other, lower cost conservative states.
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