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Here are some of the sweet tax cuts Republicans are offering ... if you're already rich

By Laura Clawson
Thursday Dec 07, 2017 · 10:05 AM CS


The Republican tax plan is loaded with sweet little windfalls for people who are already rich—provisions you just can’t take advantage of unless you have money to start with. One of the big ones is that claim Republicans love to make about a corporate tax cut leading to businesses investing in new jobs. Except really, corporations say they won't create jobs [ https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/29/1719495/-Corporations-agree-Tax-savings-will-NOT-go-toward-hiring-new-workers-or-raising-wages ] with the added money, they’ll use it for stock buybacks benefiting people who already have enough money to own their stocks.
That’s not all, though. Check it out:
"Count the ways: How GOP tax plans would reward rich families"
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/07/gop-tax-plans-would-reward-rich-families.html

Tax-free profits from 529 college savings plans would now be eligible to cover $10,000 worth of costs at private elementary and secondary schools.

What that means is that if you have enough money to have a big tax-advantaged 529 account for your kid, you can now use it to get out of taxes on part of their tuition at a fancy private grade school or high school. If you don’t have enough money to put in the 529 (or pay private school tuition), no savings for you!

An estate tax is now paid on fortunes above $5.5 million for individuals or $11 million for couples. The Senate bill would double those thresholds through the end of 2025. The result is that fewer rich families would pay any tax on inherited estates. Those families that would still owe tax would pay less. The House bill would eventually eliminate the estate tax altogether, saving wealthy heirs nearly $20 billion a year. Among the likely beneficiaries: Trump's own children.

Two out of 1,000 estates were going to owe any estate tax at all in 2017. That’s the measure of how rich you have to be to benefit from this one.

Both the Senate and House plans would reduce taxes on companies whose profits double as the owners' personal income. Republicans say this lower rate would help small businesses and entrepreneurs. But such "pass-through" companies, whose profits are taxed at the owners' personal rates, include lucrative partnerships and sole proprietorships — including much of Trump's business empire. A lower rate for them would enable many rich Americans to consolidate their wealth.

The top one percent gets 51 percent of pass-through income, and millionaires would get 79 percent of the benefit from a tax cut on pass-through companies. So again, no matter how much they package this cut as being about “small business owners,” it’s another give-away to rich people.

Republican lawmakers would raise the Child Tax Credit, with the Senate bill doubling it temporarily from $1,000 to $2,000. But the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that the benefits are restricted based on income. It estimates that 10 million children from poor working families would receive a "token" $75 or less. By contrast, a family of four earning $500,000 with two children would, under the Senate bill, receive a $4,000 credit.

If you can already afford great child care, you get money. If you’re struggling to afford adequate care so you can go to work, Republicans have virtually nothing for you.

This is the Republican approach to tax cuts in a nutshell. If you have money, you’ll get money. If you don’t, you won’t. It’s a recipe for even worse economic inequality than we already have. And that’s the point.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/7/1722112/-Here-are-some-of-the-sweet-tax-cuts-Republicans-are-offering-if-you-re-already-rich