- Oct 23, 2012
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The first thing you need to understand about the liberal distortions and falsehoods about the Trump tax cuts is that when liberals talk about the tax cuts, they are hoping that their audience won't know enough math to comprehend the huge difference between gross dollar amounts and percentages. Let us start with a simple example and then talk about real numbers under the Trump tax cuts.
If a couple who make $30K get a 10% tax cut and a couple who make $90K get a 5% tax cut, you could make these tax cuts seem unfair to the low-income couple if you only considered the gross dollar amounts. Why? Because the $30K couple are saving $3,000 in taxes but the $90K couple are saving $4,500 in taxes, since 10% of $30K is $3,000 and 5% of $90K is $4,500. The low-income couple are getting to keep a much larger share/percentage of their income than the middle-class couple are getting to keep, but the middle-class couple are saving more in gross dollars simply as a function of math because they make much more income than the low-income couple make and because they pay much more in taxes than the low-income couple pay.
Under the Trump tax cuts, a married couple who make $2M have had their top marginal rate (TMR) cut from 39.6% to 37%, a 6.9% decrease, whereas a married couple who make $100K have had their TMR cut from 25% to 22%, a 12% decrease. So the couple making $100K are getting to keep a much larger percentage of their income than the rich couple; they are getting a 12% TMR cut while the rich couple are getting a 6.9% TMR cut.
However, if you only consider gross dollar amounts, you might fool people who don't know basic math into believing that the rich couple are getting the much better deal. The rich couple's TMR taxes have been cut by $36,400, whereas the middle-class couple's TMR taxes have been cut by $688. A 6.9% reduction on the taxes paid on the rich couple's TMR-taxable income of $1,400,000 saves them $36,400 ($554,400 minus $518,000), whereas a 12% cut on the taxes paid on the middle-class couple's TMR-taxable income of $22,600 saves them $688 ($5,650 minus $4,972). The rich couple are saving more dollars in taxes because they were paying a lot more dollars in taxes, but the middle-class husband and wife are getting to keep a much larger percentage of their income than the rich couple are getting to keep.
Furthermore, of course, if you only consider gross dollar amounts in the above case, you can say that about 90% of the savings from the tax cuts are going to the rich couple, since the total savings is $37,088, and $36,400 of that is going to the rich couple, even though the middle-class couple are getting to keep a much larger percentage of their income.
Another thing you need to understand about liberal propaganda about the Trump tax cuts is that liberals are not just talking about the personal income tax cuts, which undeniably gave the biggest rate cuts to the middle class, but they are including, usually without saying so, the corporate income tax cuts that were part of the Trump tax cuts.
When you hear liberals say that 80/82/85/90/95/98% of "the tax cuts" are "going to the rich," they rarely tell you that they're basing part of that claim on the corporate income tax cuts that were included in the Trump tax cuts, even though (1) corporate income taxes are paid from corporate earnings and not from personal income, (2) hundreds of companies have used part of the savings from the corporate income tax cuts to give their employees bonuses and/or better benefits, (3) the companies that have benefited the most from the corporate income tax cuts are companies that provide the kinds of good-paying jobs that liberals always say they want to see increase, (4) the corporate income tax cuts have caused hundreds of billions of dollars of American corporate dollars that were parked overseas to come back to the U.S., and (5) the corporate income tax cuts merely brought our corporate income tax rate down to the top end of the average corporate income tax range in Europe and Asia (18% to 21%--our rate is now 21% and with no graduated levels up to that point).
Analysis of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
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The Historical Lessons of Lower Tax Rates
Setting the Record Straight About the Bush and Reagan Tax Cuts
If a couple who make $30K get a 10% tax cut and a couple who make $90K get a 5% tax cut, you could make these tax cuts seem unfair to the low-income couple if you only considered the gross dollar amounts. Why? Because the $30K couple are saving $3,000 in taxes but the $90K couple are saving $4,500 in taxes, since 10% of $30K is $3,000 and 5% of $90K is $4,500. The low-income couple are getting to keep a much larger share/percentage of their income than the middle-class couple are getting to keep, but the middle-class couple are saving more in gross dollars simply as a function of math because they make much more income than the low-income couple make and because they pay much more in taxes than the low-income couple pay.
Under the Trump tax cuts, a married couple who make $2M have had their top marginal rate (TMR) cut from 39.6% to 37%, a 6.9% decrease, whereas a married couple who make $100K have had their TMR cut from 25% to 22%, a 12% decrease. So the couple making $100K are getting to keep a much larger percentage of their income than the rich couple; they are getting a 12% TMR cut while the rich couple are getting a 6.9% TMR cut.
However, if you only consider gross dollar amounts, you might fool people who don't know basic math into believing that the rich couple are getting the much better deal. The rich couple's TMR taxes have been cut by $36,400, whereas the middle-class couple's TMR taxes have been cut by $688. A 6.9% reduction on the taxes paid on the rich couple's TMR-taxable income of $1,400,000 saves them $36,400 ($554,400 minus $518,000), whereas a 12% cut on the taxes paid on the middle-class couple's TMR-taxable income of $22,600 saves them $688 ($5,650 minus $4,972). The rich couple are saving more dollars in taxes because they were paying a lot more dollars in taxes, but the middle-class husband and wife are getting to keep a much larger percentage of their income than the rich couple are getting to keep.
Furthermore, of course, if you only consider gross dollar amounts in the above case, you can say that about 90% of the savings from the tax cuts are going to the rich couple, since the total savings is $37,088, and $36,400 of that is going to the rich couple, even though the middle-class couple are getting to keep a much larger percentage of their income.
Another thing you need to understand about liberal propaganda about the Trump tax cuts is that liberals are not just talking about the personal income tax cuts, which undeniably gave the biggest rate cuts to the middle class, but they are including, usually without saying so, the corporate income tax cuts that were part of the Trump tax cuts.
When you hear liberals say that 80/82/85/90/95/98% of "the tax cuts" are "going to the rich," they rarely tell you that they're basing part of that claim on the corporate income tax cuts that were included in the Trump tax cuts, even though (1) corporate income taxes are paid from corporate earnings and not from personal income, (2) hundreds of companies have used part of the savings from the corporate income tax cuts to give their employees bonuses and/or better benefits, (3) the companies that have benefited the most from the corporate income tax cuts are companies that provide the kinds of good-paying jobs that liberals always say they want to see increase, (4) the corporate income tax cuts have caused hundreds of billions of dollars of American corporate dollars that were parked overseas to come back to the U.S., and (5) the corporate income tax cuts merely brought our corporate income tax rate down to the top end of the average corporate income tax range in Europe and Asia (18% to 21%--our rate is now 21% and with no graduated levels up to that point).
Analysis of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
You are being redirected...
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The Historical Lessons of Lower Tax Rates
Setting the Record Straight About the Bush and Reagan Tax Cuts
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