Posted on 10/21/2017 1:59:09 PM PDT by SkyPilot
President Trump campaigned on helping the little guy. His latest tax proposal, he says, is about helping the middle guy.
Its a middle-class bill, Trump promised an audience of truckers last week.
Other administration officials and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) have also claimed that their primary objective in reconfiguring the tax code is to help the middle class, not the wealthy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I am going out on a limb here and predict that if you are currently paying taxes in any form, you will pay more than you currently are, when this tax reform bill becomes law.
There's not much competition to speak of any more...Andti trust laws have been decimated...And where there could be competition the companies have created 'associations'...They're basically unions...
Manufacturing association...Landlords associations...Car dealers association...They don't compete with each other...They work together to control prices...
I agree about these deductions, same goes for other deductions. Those who use them will lose out unless the increase in the std deduction covers their tax payment. For example my county tax is $ 5 K. if the std deduction is 12 K and it is doubled to 24 K I would have no complaint about the county tax. Likewise for other deductions, one has to be able to claim the deduction for it to matter.
A fair way to go on this would be to use a phase in approach. Also likely to be considered is a means testing approach, for example, someone with a very high income may also have a very high mortgage to deduct. It may be that the mortgage was accepted based on the deductability of the interest. I could see how something like a 5 year phase out may help lessen the blow involved in the change. If the above person has a huge income perhaps the tax burden will not be critical, if the person is just getting by, then by all means keep the deduction. The truth is that I agree with the principle of a cut for the middle class and usually this also cuts the upper class. (after all, they pay most of the taxes) It is not fair, but we have long had a system of graduated taxes and Trump has said all along that he would not alter that. Thus, no flat tax.
The tax structure has always created these win and loss situations. A better way would clearly be to eliminate the congress created pathways through the tax system. I also would prefer a single interest rate and I would prefer that everyone paid taxes. I will not get my preference from Trump, but his plan is still a boost for the economy and that will help me and others. Do you not agree in general?
The high-tax states will simply shift to a payroll tax (like the employer half of Social Security). You'll be making $100k but will have no state tax on your W-2 to deduct. But, of course, you should be making, e.g., $110k and paying 9% in state taxes.
Without the state/local deduction, you are paying taxes on income you never received. Converting the state/local tax to a payroll tax will simply make explicit the fact that you never received the money.
But, that said, with the deduction, taxpayers in states with low or no taxes are subsidizing you for voting the wrong way in your state. Where I live, we call those types of voters Massholes.
Most of us here will just use that $2,500.00 a year we save on health care so no big deal.
God I hope I don't need this. </s>
All taxes are eventually born by individuals. In the case of the corporate income tax, those individuals fall into three groups: shareholders (lower earnings), employees (lower wages), and customers (higher prices).
The shareholders are the most obvious victim. But they can sell and invest elsewhere. That leaves the workers and the customers. The customers can buy Chinese. The hell with that overtaxed, over-regulated US company! And the workers? Well, they can get new jobs ... uh, right.
Economists have estimated that the worker share of the corporate tax burden could be as high as 70%.
Reducing the corporate tax would thus mostly benefit the employees. And the economic growth that would result would benefit all of us, including those employees.
Excellent post.
I've seen the speeches the President has made in support of these tax cuts. His is convincing, and the cuts comport with what he suggested during the campaign. While they may not be perfect, they certainly aren't the total boondoggle that some think they are.
So, for those that seek once again to make the perfect the enemy of the good, I say: give the President the benefit of the doubt on this. He's earned our trust a thousand times over. Enough with the hysterical armchair quarterback routine...
A couple weeks ago there was a story about how Trump got wind that part of a proposed plan may either hurt some middle class or not help enough and he "was upset" that they were proposing crap that wouldn't do what they claimed.....I guess that doesn't matter when a twisted version of an attack on "Trump's" tax plan....
Smeared? K Street?
Are you really this naive?
I worked in Washington DC, and attended hearings before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
Let me clue you in: lobbyists mostly run our government and Washington. Members of Congress (many of them) bow to them, and lobbyists write much of our laws.
So spare me.
Nobody knows anything until we see an actual tax rate schedule with real numbers and brackets.
What a joke. You have confirmed what many in Congress and their minions have stated - the actions of this bill are meant to be punishment for millions, simply because of where they live.
Voted the wrong way? I have voted for Republicans my entire life - starting with Ronald Reagan. I live in a state with a Republican Governor, and we are in a very conservative county and district. We have a very conservative member of Congress representing us. We have a huge military presence, and many here are veterans.
But I guess we are less Americans than you are.
So by your definition the middle class doesn’t need to itemize? So the “middle class” no longer has a mortgage ? How we have fallen.
We know what is being proposed.
We know that the amendement to keep the deductions failed in the US Senate.
We can read the news.
Will it change? I hope so. But I don't have much faith in that.
Lying sack of $%%^.
If I understand it correctly there will be a 0,12,25 & 35% tax bracket. If the 25% bracket starts at above $150K AGI then that would be great! But if that 25% bracket starts at $75K then it is a f*** job. We need to see the ACTUAL numbers. Don’t get hung up on deductions.
Oh really? You are going to personally give me a raise or something?
And you are going to give a raise to the millions of Americans whose taxes are going up?
No, you won't. So stop spreading falsehoods.
There is valid reason why criticism of the "trickle down" theory is substantiated.
Companies and businesses today have perfected the art of not passing on prosperity to their workers. Whether it is through overseas shenanigans or other means, real wages have been stagnant for decades. Look it up.
I live in one of those states. I think the exemptions should go.
I agree with you that the devil is in the details. All I know is that based on what has been released up to now my taxable income is way up. Until we know the upper and lower limits of each bracket then we can’t tell who is going to get screwed and how badly. Which is also why at this point it’s ludicrous for the administration to be claiming that this is a tremendous benefit for the middle class. Nobody knows.
The deductions are a $1.5 TRILLION dollar issue.
In fact, it is the main issue here. If the numbers were not significant, Congress would not be proposing them. They need money - my money. That's why they want to take it, so that they can give my money to someone else.
The government needs money, and this is the well they chose to tap. It will adversely affect millions. So yeah, let's discuss it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.