Sunday, December 3, 2017

Mnuchin says only 'million dollar' earners will pay higher taxes—Tax Policy Center and others show otherwise


Steven Mnuchin said that the republican tax bill will raise taxes on people who are earning more than $1 million and providing a tax break to everyone else. These benefits will go to lower and middle-income people, yet even the rich will find benefits. The Treasury Secretary stated the bill will “simplify taxes and level the playing field”.
This plan includes eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes. This eliminated tax deduction will negatively impact the taxpayers in high-tax states. The people who have less income than $1 million in high-tax states are still expected to receive a tax cut from the bill. Business owners who pay more taxes will get benefits from the reduction of business tax which will especially benefit New York. This benefit is a pass-through reduction which will also help small, medium- size business and entrepreneurs. This bill will lower the corporate tax levy from 35% to 20%. 
However, many studies have disagreed with Munchin’s valuation. The Tax Policy center said by 2025 that most of the benefits would accumulate to the top 1% and that upper-middle class payers will see higher taxes and lower income levels would receive only modest benefits. The GOP tax writers claim that this tax cut will generate growth and allow companies to hire more workers at higher wages.

Opponents state that this will tax more of the middle-class people which might make them consume less because they have less disposable income. The bill lowers business taxes so that businesses are more likely to invest. This break is expected to lead to saving so that business will start to invest more, meaning that interest rates will go down. This will also make the grants for graduate student’s income, which will then be taxed on. This bill is trying to cut taxes for people and give benefits to others, but it may only be making it worse. The House bill will have to be reconciled to the bill to be passed in the Senate which might change the analysis for the middle and lower income tax payer.

3 comments:

  1. In our country, the saying "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer" is very true. Forcing "Million dollar earners" to pay higher taxes in order to provide benefits to the lower and middle class is odd to me. We are making people who have earned, whether past generations of their family of themselves, to basically hand money those who have not earned it.

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  2. Sad to see that the only way to help small/medium business and provide tax breaks to the less wealthy is to make such a policy that still benefits the rich. This sort of policy is tricky and comes down to deciding whether one party takes disadvantage or the other party gains an advantage.

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  3. Increases taxes on education..or even taxing education at all, is going to negatively affect our stock of human capital. And human capital is such a precious resource for growth. So I think that part of the reform is a huge mistake.

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