Simply Politics & News

[Long2Retire]

The president’s Christmas gift to America

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/4/donald-trumps-christmas-gift-to-america-is-tax-bil/

Everyone looks at a tax bill through his own individual prism. But to judge it more accurately, we need to consider how it will affect others, too.

After all, tax reform won’t apply to just one segment of the population. Directly or indirectly, all of us will feel it — some of us quite profoundly.

Most Americans would receive a significant cut under the Republican tax plan now before Congress. An analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that all income groups would see immediate dividends.
Many tax-cut opponents are crying foul because those in the top-income brackets would see a greater savings under the tax plan. But we have to remember that they pay much more than those in other income groups. In fact, as a percentage of their income, they see the smallest benefits.

Internal Revenue Service figures show that the top 5 percent of earners took in 34 percent of the national income in 2011, but paid 56 percent of all federal income taxes that year. Meanwhile, the bottom half of all earners took in 12 percent of the income — and paid only 3 percent of the taxes.

With such a sharply progressive tax system, this is only natural. But it does show how ludicrous it is for tax-cut foes to point to the higher savings that the wealthy would realize under the current bills as evidence of how “unfair” they allegedly are. (And as it turns out, some who make a larger salary won’t see that much benefit — indeed, some will even see their tax bills go up.)