Tax Bill Analysis: Spend Your Extra $100 Wisely

In the Senate tax bill, someone making $100K gets an extra $100 to spend in 2027. Those making less than $75K lose money

Tax reform was supposed to be simpler, more fair, not add to the deficit. and lower taxes on the middle class. It did none of those things, but it did lower taxes on corporations to 20%.

Simpler – No

The Senate version kept the complicated and much despised Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

Senate Tax Brackets 7 vs House 4

Individual tax cuts expire after 2025

More Fair – No

Lower Taxes on Middle Class – No

By 2027, only those making more than $100,000 a year gain from reform.

Those making $100,000 to $500,000 get a benefit of 0.1% according to nonpartisan tax analysis.

Reduce the Deficit – No

As noted previously, Tax Bill Adds $1 Trillion to Deficit (Without Cutting Taxes for Most).

The above chart is from the New York Times article on tax bill deficits.

The above image from the Wall Street Journal article Enough Votes to Pass Senate Tax Bill.

Who Benefits?

Me.

The Journal notes that pass-through firms, which pay their business taxes through individual returns rather than corporate returns, won major concessions. They would get a 23% deduction from individual rates. More than half of U.S. business income goes to pass-throughs, and more than half of that goes to the top 1% of households.

I am a pass-through firm. However, it is uncertain how this all gets reconciled.

Blame Corker

Looking for whom to blame?

I can help. The Bill passed the Senate Finance committee by a 11-10 margin. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee was the deciding vote after he was given “assurances” that language would be added to reduce the deficit.

He should have known those assurances were not worth a damn. Arguably he did know but simply didn’t care.

When the final vote came in the Senate, Corker was the only Republican dissenter.

Too late. The bill needed to be stopped in Committee.