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Wall Street vs. Main Street In Tax Bill

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  • Wall Street vs. Main Street In Tax Bill

    For those interested in the subject, here is some coverage of the latest around the current tax overhaul in Congress from a more progressive perspective.

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    Wall Street vs. Main Street In Tax Bill



    Even ignoring the cuts to taxes on wealthy estates, analysts say the tax bill ends up helping the rich much more than the middle class and working families. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
    November 20, 2017

    RICHMOND, Va. -- Analysts say the tax bill moving quickly through Congress benefits corporations, rich professionals and wealthy families at the expense of the national deficit and, ultimately, everyone else.

    Republicans have promised that the tax bill will raise wages. But they admit the bill would cost $1.5 trillion over ten years. By the time it's fully implemented, 80 percent of that would be going to pay for a big corporate tax cut, a slashing of the estate tax and a cut in taxes on pass-though income.

    Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban/Brookings Tax Policy Center, pointed out that those tax cuts for businesses and rich households are permanent, while the benefits for the middle class will expire.

    "For high-income people, it's all about business taxes and corporate taxes, and of course the estate tax,” Gleckman said. "And in fact the winners and losers change over time, and actually you get more losers as time goes on."

    Republican leaders in the Senate are pushing to rush the bill through, hoping to have it done within a few weeks.

    Pass-though income is money made by a business that the owner - often a professional such as a doctor or a lawyer - declares as income rather than as profit. Supporters of the tax bill say tax cuts on this kind of income will help small businesses.

    But according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, half of pass-through income goes to the top 1 percent of earners. Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the CBPP, said congressional Republicans are already saying they plan to use the increased deficits to call for cuts in programs used by seniors, the middle class and working families.

    "As soon as the ink is dry on this bill, we're going to see Republicans point to that debt, point to those deficits,” Marr said. "They'll go after Medicaid, they'll go after nutrition, they'll go after education, access to college."

    Marr said despite the "America first" trade rhetoric coming out of Washington, the bill would also encourage multinational corporations to make their money offshore by reducing the taxes they would pay when bringing their profits home.

    Dan Heyman, Public News Service - VA

    Link: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/201...-bill/a60349-1
    james.c.hendrickson@gmail.com
    202.468.6043

  • #2
    No surprises here. If anyone expected anything else, they're delusional.
    Steve

    * Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
    * Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
    * There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by disneysteve View Post
      No surprises here. If anyone expected anything else, they're delusional.
      Amen.

      Comment


      • #4
        "They'll go after Medicaid, they'll go after nutrition, they'll go after education, access to college."

        Speaking of going after college, I read that one of the tax plans calls for graduate students who have tuition waivers be taxed on the value of tuition as if it were income. That caught my eye because my son is still in grad school. He gets a research stipend of $27,000, I think. I don't know how much the tuition is, but I suspect it is enough that to pay taxes on it he might have to take out a loan! Living on $27K and paying income on a $105,000 "income"!?

        I tried to find where I read about this but couldn't find it immediately. I did, however, find someone saying that their own grad student stipend in the same field as my son is $26K and that their tax liability would increase by $6000. That is huge when you really only have cash of $26k coming through your wallet.
        "There is some ontological doubt as to whether it may even be possible in principle to nail down these things in the universe we're given to study." --text msg from my kid

        "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." --Frederick Douglass

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Joan.of.the.Arch View Post
          Speaking of going after college, I read that one of the tax plans calls for graduate students who have tuition waivers be taxed on the value of tuition as if it were income.
          That is true. It is part of the House proposal.

          This would decimate graduate education in this country. It would also decimate scientific research. Again, no surprise here as the administration is very openly anti-science.

          If passed, it would certainly deter students from entering graduate programs as the cost would become unaffordable. And the biggest victims would be students like your son who are midway through a graduate program but might not be able to complete it if the price suddenly shoots up by many thousands of dollars per year.

          My daughter is a college senior and has been thinking about pursuing a graduate degree. If this proposal becomes law, that would probably no longer be possible for her.

          We can only hope that this gets shot down.
          Steve

          * Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
          * Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
          * There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Joan.of.the.Arch View Post
            "They'll go after Medicaid, they'll go after nutrition, they'll go after education, access to college."

            Speaking of going after college, I read that one of the tax plans calls for graduate students who have tuition waivers be taxed on the value of tuition as if it were income. That caught my eye because my son is still in grad school. He gets a research stipend of $27,000, I think. I don't know how much the tuition is, but I suspect it is enough that to pay taxes on it he might have to take out a loan! Living on $27K and paying income on a $105,000 "income"!?

            I tried to find where I read about this but couldn't find it immediately. I did, however, find someone saying that their own grad student stipend in the same field as my son is $26K and that their tax liability would increase by $6000. That is huge when you really only have cash of $26k coming through your wallet.
            Yes you are right! I have kids in college so I often read on College Confidential Forums and those folks over there are up in arms over this provision, rightly so :-(

            Comment


            • #7
              What I hate about all this stuff is that it makes hard to plan! You try to do things so they're advantageous to you, and then the rug gets pulled out from under you half way thru.

              This happened to us with my husbands pension and now with the kids college.

              I honestly think that sometime in the future they will change the rules with Roth IRA's and tax the distributions. Its one of the reasons I'm not throwing in a bunch of dollars in my Roth 401k. I have the majority of my money going to just the 401k. Mark my words, when I'm an old lady and retired they'll be coming after that pot of money.

              Comment


              • #8
                Yes, planning. Even as simple as my tax situation has been, I still would like to be able to plan.
                "There is some ontological doubt as to whether it may even be possible in principle to nail down these things in the universe we're given to study." --text msg from my kid

                "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." --Frederick Douglass

                Comment


                • #9
                  Any tax reform or tax code is always going to favor those individuals and entities that have and move the most capital and have access to write-offs and other tax saving strategies.

                  The tax code is not written to be favorable to W2 earners. The wealthy earn their money through business and real estate investments for a reason.
                  Brian

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by bjl584 View Post
                    Any tax reform or tax code is always going to favor those individuals and entities that have and move the most capital and have access to write-offs and other tax saving strategies.

                    The tax code is not written to be favorable to W2 earners. The wealthy earn their money through business and real estate investments for a reason.
                    True. I guess I just struggle to understand making changes that negatively affect education, the arts, and other things that the rich benefit from and enjoy just as much if not more than others.
                    Steve

                    * Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
                    * Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
                    * There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by disneysteve View Post
                      True. I guess I just struggle to understand making changes that negatively affect education, the arts, and other things that the rich benefit from and enjoy just as much if not more than others.
                      I'd guess it's not malicious. Changes like that are probably the result of unintended consequences or a fundamental misunderstanding of the issues.

                      The economy is huge and has a lot of moving parts. Tinkering with a part of it can cause a lot of changes to take place. Some good, some bad.

                      Take a look at something like employer sponsored health care. That started out as a tax break post WWII. Look what it has morphed into today.
                      Brian

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by bjl584 View Post
                        a fundamental misunderstanding of the issues.
                        I think this is what should concern all of us the most. If the people making the laws don't understand the issues they are legislating about, that's a big problem.

                        I'm no genius but I'm able to understand that if you take a grad student earning 30K and change the law so that their taxes go up by 10K, they won't be able to afford to continue their education. Who does that benefit?
                        Steve

                        * Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
                        * Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
                        * There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by bjl584 View Post
                          I'd guess it's not malicious. Changes like that are probably the result of unintended consequences or a fundamental misunderstanding of the issues.

                          The economy is huge and has a lot of moving parts. Tinkering with a part of it can cause a lot of changes to take place. Some good, some bad.

                          Take a look at something like employer sponsored health care. That started out as a tax break post WWII. Look what it has morphed into today.
                          I don't think it's malicious but it is definitely a conscious decision. It's just a representation of where their priorities lie. The plan was pitched at a $1.5 trillion tax cut. But it actually is a $6 trillion tax cut.

                          Because it RAISES $4.5 trillion from elsewhere, one of those being students.

                          They know what they are doing. The GOP rails against higher education all the time, and have actively been against helping students financially in a anyway. This tax increase on students was low hanging fruit that would get lost and mix and underreported on. Which it was.

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