We’re promised a “beautiful” tax cut. Before Christmas.
Didn’t anyone tell Congress and that guy in the White House that big changes to the tax code make health care look easy?
It’s only weeks from the target date for passage of a HUGE tax overhaul and no actual bill has been introduced.
So, all we have is talk and tease about what tax features are on the chopping block.
Either there isn’t a bill yet, or the authors of the bill don’t want anyone to know what’s in it. Maybe with good reason.
But the continuing talk about the proposed demise of various deductions available to middle income tax payers as necessary to fund the lower business rates, requires we ask:
where are the business deductions, special deals, and loopholes to be closed to fund lower rates?
Taxes are driven by two separate numbers:
- the income to be taxed after deductions and exclusions
- the tax rate applied to taxable income
There’s lots of ballyhoo about lowering rates on businesses, but no discussion of eliminating all the special deals that reduce the income that gets taxed.
Until that side of the equation is out in the open, the cynic in me says this is a further give-away to big business.
Giveaway funded by families
The GOP narrative wants to convince us that the only way to achieve the (mythical) boom that lower business taxes are promised to achieve is to cut out the deductions that moderate what individuals pay.
Without deductions like the 401(k) retirement contribution and state & local taxes, the family’s taxable income goes up. Unless the tax rate goes down, families pay more tax.
While businesses pay less.
Without a tax bill to read, analyze and debate, you have to conclude that the middle class is on the chopping block.
