Trump Tax Cuts benefited Middle Class the Most

[Warrior]

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/584190-irs-data-prove-trump-tax-cuts-benefited-middle-working-class-americans-most

 

Income data published by the IRS clearly show that on average all income brackets benefited substantially from the Republicans’ tax reform law, with the biggest beneficiaries being working and middle-income filers, not the top 1 percent, as so many Democrats have argued.

A careful analysis of the IRS tax data, one that includes the effects of tax credits and other reforms to the tax code, shows that filers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $15,000 to $50,000 enjoyed an average tax cut of 16 percent to 26 percent in 2018, the first year Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went into effect and the most recent year for which data is available.

Filers who earned $50,000 to $100,000 received a tax break of about 15 percent to 17 percent, and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 in adjusted gross income saw their personal income taxes cut by around 11 percent to 13 percent.

 

What’s more, IRS data shows earners in higher income brackets contributed a bigger slice of the total income tax revenue pie following the passage of the tax reform law than they had in the previous year.

In fact, every income bracket with filers earning $200,000 or more increased its tax burden in 2018 compared to 2017, and every income bracket with a top limit lower than $200,000 paid a smaller proportion of the total personal tax revenue collected.

[Atticus Finch]

Another person who doesn't understand what op-ed means.

Would it surprise you to know that this writer works for Fox News and the Heartland Institute?

It shouldn't.

Arguing that a tax cut of 16% to 26% for low-income workers was "more beneficial" than 11% to 13% for high-income workers is so disingenuous.

[DBP66]

Who benefited most from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?

Middle-class Americans saw mixed results as most of the benefits accrued to the highest earners.

By

Derek Silva

 

Updated March 17, 2020|17 min read

 

Policygenius content follows strict guidelines for editorial accuracy and integrity. 

 

 

Key Takeaways

• High-income individuals were the most likely to see tax savings, while low-income and middle-class families saw mixed results

• 88.2% of taxpayers claimed the standard deduction in 2018

• The higher standard deduction wasn’t enough to offset the loss of personal exemptions for some families

• Businesses appear to have saved the most from the Trump tax cuts; corporate income tax collected by the IRS decreased by 22.4% from 2017 to 2018

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), passed by President Trump and congressional Republicans, was the biggest reform of the U.S. tax code since 1986. The TCJA lowered income tax rates, especially for higher-income Americans, and it lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Some tax credits and deductions also changed. The standard deduction was nearly doubled (from $6,350 in 2017 to $12,000 in 2018) and the child tax credit was doubled (from $1,000 in 2017 to $2,000 in 2018), but some itemized deductions were limited or eliminated.

IRS data on the 2018 tax season released in May 2019 shows that savings for taxpayers were uneven. For example, the average refund was $90 higher, nationally, in 2018 than 2017. But the taxpayers who saw the largest refund increases had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of at least $200,000. Tax returns showing an AGI of less than $100,000 paid less income tax overall, but returns with an AGI just above $100,000 (many middle-class families) owed more tax, on average. Note that this AGI is per tax return, not per taxpayer: A married couple where each spouse has a salary of $65,000 could very well have an AGI of just above $100,000 if they file jointly.

On the whole, low-income families appear to have received the least savings, while high-income families saved the most. Middle-class families saw mixed results. The biggest winners from Trump’s tax cuts were probably businesses. Between 2017 and 2018, corporations paid 22.4% less income tax. The total value of refunds issued by the IRS to businesses also increased by 33.8% nationally.

How the new tax brackets affected taxpayers

The income tax brackets determine which tax rates you pay, based on your income. Starting in 2018, federal income tax rates ranged from 10% to 37%. There are seven rates within that range, and you only pay a particular rate on the amount of your income that falls within that rate’s income bracket.

President Trump’s tax reform lowered the rates for six of the seven tax brackets (only the 10% bracket remained the same), and expanded the income ranges for each bracket such that more taxpayers would pay a lower top rate.

(Learn more about how the tax brackets work.)

Low-income working families saw the least benefit

Low-income individuals saw the least benefit, likely because changes to the tax rates were less pronounced at low income levels. The lowest income tax rate (10%) did not change, even though all of the other rates went down.

Surprise tax bills for some middle-class families

The lower income tax rates should have helped Americans throughout the year because employers generally withheld less income tax from employee paychecks, increasing their after-tax income. Unfortunately, many workers didn’t know they needed to make changes on their W-4 forms to counteract the changes. The result was that some workers had more take-home pay, but then underpaid their income taxes and owed the IRS thousands of dollars on Tax Day.

(Tax Day was scheduled to fall on April 15, 2020, but due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Trump administration has extended the deadline by 90 days, to July 15, 2020. Policygenius recommends filing your taxes as early as possible to take advantage of any refunds you're owed, or to give yourself more time to pay any tax bill.)

Make sure to update your W-4 in 2020, especially if you had surprise tax bills in 2018 or 2019. The IRS doesn’t require anyone to make changes unless they get a new job, so you need to put in the effort to adjust your W-4 withholding yourself.

High-income taxpayers likely saw more benefit overall because of the cumulative effect of having the rates for six of the seven tax brackets lowered. (That is, the lower your income was, the less you saved from each tax bracket, because your income fell into fewer total tax brackets.)

In addition to the standard income tax brackets, Trump’s tax cuts lowered the capital gains tax brackets. Individuals with high investment income likely benefited the most because the changes allowed more high-income individuals to qualify for a lower capital gains tax rate.

[Warrior]

10 minutes ago, Atticus Finch said:

Another person who doesn't understand what op-ed means.

Would it surprise you to know that this writer works for Fox News and the Heartland Institute?

It shouldn't.

Arguing that a tax cut of 16% to 26% for low-income workers was "more beneficial" than 11% to 13% for high-income workers is so disingenuous.

 

I understand op-ed and opinion articles. I also understand the numbers are the numbers. Yet you discount a 16-26% decrease and somehow make the claim that 11%-13% is greater because of a person's higher income. I would argue that 16-26% had a much greater impact on a family making less and living on a tighter budget. Also you fail to mention those making over 200k paid a great portion on the overall taxes collected vs the year prior which along would clearly show who was benefiting from Trump's tax plan and who wasn't. 

[Warrior]

16 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

Who benefited most from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?

Middle-class Americans saw mixed results as most of the benefits accrued to the highest earners.

By

Derek Silva

 

Updated March 17, 2020|17 min read

 

Policygenius content follows strict guidelines for editorial accuracy and integrity. 

 

 

Key Takeaways

• High-income individuals were the most likely to see tax savings, while low-income and middle-class families saw mixed results

• 88.2% of taxpayers claimed the standard deduction in 2018

• The higher standard deduction wasn’t enough to offset the loss of personal exemptions for some families

• Businesses appear to have saved the most from the Trump tax cuts; corporate income tax collected by the IRS decreased by 22.4% from 2017 to 2018

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), passed by President Trump and congressional Republicans, was the biggest reform of the U.S. tax code since 1986. The TCJA lowered income tax rates, especially for higher-income Americans, and it lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Some tax credits and deductions also changed. The standard deduction was nearly doubled (from $6,350 in 2017 to $12,000 in 2018) and the child tax credit was doubled (from $1,000 in 2017 to $2,000 in 2018), but some itemized deductions were limited or eliminated.

IRS data on the 2018 tax season released in May 2019 shows that savings for taxpayers were uneven. For example, the average refund was $90 higher, nationally, in 2018 than 2017. But the taxpayers who saw the largest refund increases had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of at least $200,000. Tax returns showing an AGI of less than $100,000 paid less income tax overall, but returns with an AGI just above $100,000 (many middle-class families) owed more tax, on average. Note that this AGI is per tax return, not per taxpayer: A married couple where each spouse has a salary of $65,000 could very well have an AGI of just above $100,000 if they file jointly.

On the whole, low-income families appear to have received the least savings, while high-income families saved the most. Middle-class families saw mixed results. The biggest winners from Trump’s tax cuts were probably businesses. Between 2017 and 2018, corporations paid 22.4% less income tax. The total value of refunds issued by the IRS to businesses also increased by 33.8% nationally.

How the new tax brackets affected taxpayers

The income tax brackets determine which tax rates you pay, based on your income. Starting in 2018, federal income tax rates ranged from 10% to 37%. There are seven rates within that range, and you only pay a particular rate on the amount of your income that falls within that rate’s income bracket.

President Trump’s tax reform lowered the rates for six of the seven tax brackets (only the 10% bracket remained the same), and expanded the income ranges for each bracket such that more taxpayers would pay a lower top rate.

(Learn more about how the tax brackets work.)

Low-income working families saw the least benefit

Low-income individuals saw the least benefit, likely because changes to the tax rates were less pronounced at low income levels. The lowest income tax rate (10%) did not change, even though all of the other rates went down.

Surprise tax bills for some middle-class families

The lower income tax rates should have helped Americans throughout the year because employers generally withheld less income tax from employee paychecks, increasing their after-tax income. Unfortunately, many workers didn’t know they needed to make changes on their W-4 forms to counteract the changes. The result was that some workers had more take-home pay, but then underpaid their income taxes and owed the IRS thousands of dollars on Tax Day.

(Tax Day was scheduled to fall on April 15, 2020, but due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Trump administration has extended the deadline by 90 days, to July 15, 2020. Policygenius recommends filing your taxes as early as possible to take advantage of any refunds you're owed, or to give yourself more time to pay any tax bill.)

Make sure to update your W-4 in 2020, especially if you had surprise tax bills in 2018 or 2019. The IRS doesn’t require anyone to make changes unless they get a new job, so you need to put in the effort to adjust your W-4 withholding yourself.

High-income taxpayers likely saw more benefit overall because of the cumulative effect of having the rates for six of the seven tax brackets lowered. (That is, the lower your income was, the less you saved from each tax bracket, because your income fell into fewer total tax brackets.)

In addition to the standard income tax brackets, Trump’s tax cuts lowered the capital gains tax brackets. Individuals with high investment income likely benefited the most because the changes allowed more high-income individuals to qualify for a lower capital gains tax rate.

 

I'll refer to the numbers from the IRS.

[Atticus Finch]

15 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

Businesses appear to have saved the most from the Trump tax cuts; corporate income tax collected by the IRS decreased by 22.4% from 2017 to 2018

Of course this is the rub.

The article doesn't even attempt to address the corporate tax cut and the capital gains tax cut.

It's a wholly disingenuous article but that's the entire purpose of it's existence.

[Atticus Finch]

9 minutes ago, Warrior said:

I also understand the numbers are the numbers.

You apparently don't understand that people like Justin Haskins make their living by misleading with numbers.

[Warrior]

7 minutes ago, Atticus Finch said:

Of course this is the rub.

The article doesn't even attempt to address the corporate tax cut and the capital gains tax cut.

It's a wholly disingenuous article but that's the entire purpose of it's existence.

 

Most likely because the article is about individual income taxes not corporate taxes or capital gains taxes.

 

[Atticus Finch]

12 minutes ago, Warrior said:

Yet you discount a 16-26% decrease and somehow make the claim that 11%-13% is greater because of a person's higher income.

The numbers *are* the numbers.

Claiming that a couple hundred dollars is "more beneficial" than several thousand dollars is utterly disingenuous. These are the kind of lies that Republicans tell working stiffs to try to bamboozle them into supporting their agenda.

[Atticus Finch]

4 minutes ago, Warrior said:

Most likely because the article is about individual income taxes not corporate taxes or capital gains taxes.

Which is exactly what I said and something that was done on purpose.

[Atticus Finch]

20 minutes ago, Warrior said:

I would argue that 16-26% had a much greater impact on a family making less and living on a tighter budget. 

You'd argue disingenuously.

A couple hundred dollars more on a tax refund (which I would bet most people didn't even realize they got) is not more beneficial than the thousands that high-income earners got shaved off their tax bill.

And that's without even mentioning that capital gains cut that likely benefited them even more.

[Atticus Finch]

34 minutes ago, Warrior said:

Also you fail to mention those making over 200k paid a great portion on the overall taxes collected vs the year prior which along would clearly show who was benefiting from Trump's tax plan and who wasn't. 

That's because overall tax revenue went down. The richest tax payers just paid a higher portion of a *smaller* take.

This is a crash course in how to deceive with percentages.

[Atticus Finch]

27 minutes ago, Warrior said:

I'll refer to the numbers from the IRS.

You'll stick to a dishonest narrative because it fits your agenda.

[Atticus Finch]

29 minutes ago, Warrior said:

I'll refer to the numbers from the IRS.

His article also uses IRS data.

It's almost like you can manipulate the presentation of data to fit your narrative.

🤔

IRS data on the 2018 tax season released in May 2019 shows that savings for taxpayers were uneven. For example, the average refund was $90 higher, nationally, in 2018 than 2017. But the taxpayers who saw the largest refund increases had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of at least $200,000. Tax returns showing an AGI of less than $100,000 paid less income tax overall, but returns with an AGI just above $100,000 (many middle-class families) owed more tax, on average. Note that this AGI is per tax return, not per taxpayer: A married couple where each spouse has a salary of $65,000 could very well have an AGI of just above $100,000 if they file jointly.

[Troll]

14 minutes ago, Atticus Finch said:

 

This is a crash course in how to deceive with percentages.

 

We know...👌

 

So now explain

Current actual death count 

vaxed vs unvaxed 

no % required 👍

💩

 

ps: you two are both idiots arguing %s at a time when Billions in public funds were pre-spent on a non-existent product while more money was printed than at any time in history.  

 

Btw: immunity 🤡

[Atticus Finch]

One of my favorite Steve Bannon moments was when he went on Bill Maher and admitted that the capital gains and personal income tax cuts were a necessary evil in order to get the real prized part of the bill passed: the corporate tax cut!

At 5:08.

 

[Warrior]

1 hour ago, Atticus Finch said:

That's because overall tax revenue went down. The richest tax payers just paid a higher portion of a *smaller* take.

This is a crash course in how to deceive with percentages.

 

Let me let you in on a little secret...when tax cuts are passed one of the many benefits is overall tax revenue goes down. I know this is bad word for Democrats but most Americans appreciate paying less in taxes.

I'll again refer to the year prior those making 15-50k saw the greatest decrease in their tax burden. And those at the highest tax bracket saw the least benefit as promised when passed. Nothing to lie about - I'm not a Dem or lib so no need.

It has been enjoyable watching you discount the middle class tax benefit from the year prior, you know the group that makes up over 80% of the population. 

 

[concha]

Someone appears to have upset Andy.

It's difficult to give someone earning less than $50k (like Andy) a $5k (or even $500) tax cut when the vast majority of such people either pay nothing (or near as damn) or actually get a pay day on April 15th.

 

 

https://www.indexjournal.com/news/national/studies-trump-tax-cuts-helped-lower-income-families-build-back-better-helps-wealthier-americans/article_7343db6f-47f1-577b-8d83-e31c4f803a46.html

 

 

[DBP66]

1 hour ago, concha said:

Someone appears to have upset Andy.

It's difficult to give someone earning less than $50k (like Andy) a $5k (or even $500) tax cut when the vast majority of such people either pay nothing (or near as damn) or actually get a pay day on April 15th.

 

 

https://www.indexjournal.com/news/national/studies-trump-tax-cuts-helped-lower-income-families-build-back-better-helps-wealthier-americans/article_7343db6f-47f1-577b-8d83-e31c4f803a46.html

 

 

and how much of the pie/wealth do the top 1% own in America?..Newly released data from the Fed show that the top 1 percent of income earners now hold 32.1 percent of all wealth in the United States. That is the highest percentage of wealth the top 1 percent has held since the Fed began publishing the data set in 1989.

The top 10% of families -- those who had at least $942,000 -- held 76% of total wealth. The average amount of wealth in this group was $4 million...🙄

they better pay their taxes or else we'd be broke!...and now they need to pay their fair share...which Biden is making them do...😉

[Troll]

2 hours ago, DBP66 said:

and how much of the pie/wealth do the top 1% own in America?..Newly released data from the Fed show that the top 1 percent of income earners now hold 32.1 percent of all wealth in the United States. That is the highest percentage of wealth the top 1 percent has held since the Fed began publishing the data set in 1989.

The top 10% of families -- those who had at least $942,000 -- held 76% of total wealth. The average amount of wealth in this group was $4 million...🙄

they better pay their taxes or else we'd be broke!...and now they need to pay their fair share...which Biden is making them do...😉

Stop complaining about t raiding the public piggy bank and paying billions to corporations for your vax ...

...you support that remember?

🤡

 

ps: and  check the wealth gap under your boy Joey 👀

 

[golfaddict1]

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/6-facts-about-economic-inequality-in-the-u-s/
 

Tax help….reality check 
 

 

[Ga96]

I have to give it to @Atticus Finch when he is on politics he is spot on. Ill be damn if im going back and forth with these idiots but atticus is a damn warrior. Trying to educate the ignorant one thread at a time.

Better than me because im not going back and forth with them. You can tell they have dug in and choose to remain ignorant one just about every subject.

[Atticus Finch]

22 hours ago, concha said:

It's difficult to give someone earning less than $50k (like Andy) a $5k (or even $500) tax cut when the vast majority of such people either pay nothing (or near as damn) or actually get a pay day on April 15th.

For normal people, it's hard to be as consistently dishonest as concha is.

The od-ed that's the subject of this thread is purposefully dishonest about not only the results of the tax cut it's intended purpose.

See, concha is playing his toady role perfectly here. He thinks the problem with current tax policy is that poor people don't pay enough. This is a common refrain from people like him which is why he's the perfect messenger.

But the author is dishonest there as well because he insinuates that the rich paying a higher share is a actually a *good* thing. Or at least he's trying to sell it to skeptics as a good outcome.

But I don't believe for a second that he actually believes that. One thing you have to give concha credit for is that he's a genuine believer in this regard; he really wants the poor to pay more.

[Atticus Finch]

21 hours ago, DBP66 said:

and how much of the pie/wealth do the top 1% own in America?

The right question which is usually sufficient in shutting down the obvious and tired retorts of people like concha.

[concha]

21 hours ago, Troll said:

Stop complaining about t raiding the public piggy bank and paying billions to corporations for your vax ...

...you support that remember?

🤡

 

ps: and  check the wealth gap under your boy Joey 👀

 

 

Guess which states are found at or near the top of lists for greatest income inequality in the nation? 

New York

Connecticut

California

Massachusetts...

 

Lots of BLUE...

Ratio of top 1% income to bottom 99% income, U.S. and by state and region, 2015

State rank (from highest to lowest ratio)	State/region	Average income of the top 1%	Average income of the bottom 99%	Top-to-bottom ratio
—	United States	$1,316,985	$50,107	26.3
1	New York	$2,202,480	$49,617	44.4
2	Florida	$1,543,124	$39,094	39.5
3	Connecticut	$2,522,806	$67,742	37.2
4	Nevada	$1,354,780	$41,470	32.7
5	Wyoming	$1,900,659	$60,922	31.2
6	Massachusetts	$1,904,805	$61,694	30.9
7	California	$1,693,094	$55,152	30.7
8	Illinois	$1,412,024	$52,216	27.0
9	New Jersey	$1,581,829	$65,068	24.3
10	Washington	$1,383,223	$57,100	24.2