House Republicans revealed their tax reform bill on Thursday after a long wait with much anticipation after President Trump and his administration said that his tax reform would contain some of the biggest tax cuts in years.
Trump has released the goals that he believes are necessary to achieve in order to have a successful tax reform bill for the American people and many were wondering if it could be achieved at all, let alone the level that Trump demands it on. This Thursday was a pleasant one though for the GOP as President Trump praised the tax plan released by the House but said, “there is much work left to do” before it becomes the bill America needs.
From almost the very beginning of the tax reform talks, the people of America have been divided into two groups: those who like President Trump’s bill and those who don’t like anything he does.
I say it like this because his plans for tax reform are actually quite amazing and they show a lot of potential to help out Americans the way we need to be helped. Trump’s bill will also give our country even more economic growth economic growth than Trump’s first term has already given us (3% growth under Trump’s duration compared to Obama’s 2% after 8 years of office). The problem with the majority of Americans not being on board is that many of us are claiming to disapprove of his tax reform because of their bias for hating President Trump but they love the bill when told it is someone else’s (someone like Bernie Sanders).
I’ve said it before in a previous article of mine and I’ll say it again in this one: Donald Trump has many flaws, to put it nicely, but so do the rest of the citizens in this country. He is a human being with imperfections, but he can and will do a lot of great things for America when it comes to putting us back at the top of the food chain.
That being said, let’s get to the details of the tax plan, the challenges our government will face while trying to pass the bill, who the winners and losers are in this plan, and how it will affect you and the rest of our country.
Whenever the word “taxes” comes up, you just naturally want to squeeze your head as hard as you can until it pops. Whether it’s thinking about having your money taxed, paying taxes on products, or even doing them during tax season, the word “tax” makes you want to scream into a nearby pillow until you turn blue.
However, with the POTUS’s tax reform bill that the Republicans are working so feverishly to accomplish passing, we may be able to look at taxes through a very different, much brighter perspective sometime in the near future. President Trump has four very simple goals with this bill: to provide tax relief for the middle class, to simplify our nation’s tax code, to grow the American economy, and to not add to our national debt.
Simple right? Ehhh, not so much.
In order for Trump to consider the plan a success, the bill will have to make up to four trillion dollars in tax cuts which, according to Sen. Bob Corker, the Republicans are “having great difficulty just getting to $3.6 trillion.” That’s a lot of money but we’re almost there and the GOP is working at a pretty quick and persistent rate to not only reach the necessary goals, but to do so by the beginning of the new year like they’re aiming for.
Some key specifics of Trump’s tax reform include no income taxes at all for singles making less than $25,000 a year or for married couples making a joint income of less than $50,000, which greatly benefits the lower class and gives them a break that I’m positive many of them could use and definitely deserve by now. This alone takes care of almost 50% of all American taxpayers.
Another way Trump’s plan benefits us is through his new simplified tax code. There are currently seven different tax brackets but Trump’s plan will bring it down to just four: 0%, 10%, 20%, and 25%. This will help provide the lowest tax rate in America since World War II!
The bill will also be eliminating the "death tax" which taxes estate inheritance by a person through the death of a loved one or just someone who leaves you something valuable when they pass — does that even happen anymore? The logic behind this is that the deceased person worked very hard to earn whatever it is that they are passing down to someone else and the government has no right to tax the heir to the estate just because someone died.
Some other notable things to mention about Trump’s tax plan are the eliminating of our system’s loopholes that allow the very rich to get off on their taxes easier, having child tax credits, and bringing business back into America.
Yes, that’s right: bringing business back into America and therefore, creating more jobs for the American people. President Trump wants to make sure that no business of any size, from a mom and pop store all the way up to a Fortune 500 company, will have to pay any more than just 15% of their business’s income in taxes.
By doing this, companies will no longer feel the need to have corporate inversions where they move overseas for the lower tax rates that other countries have to offer them.
John Harvey, a contributor to Forbes Magazine, argues that cutting corporate taxes won't be enough because the cost of labor will still be cheaper overseas, however these American companies don't necessarily want to have to do business outside of the country so I suppose it could be a toss-up when it comes to knowing whether or not the companies will come back to the states.
If this bill passes, America will have one of the best tax rates in the world and with companies benefiting in the way that they will, there will be a lot more money for these companies to hire more people and have the money fed right back into the American economy through their own spending or the spending of the many newly employed citizens of America.
So who are the winners and losers in this tax reform bill? I mean, that IS what we really care about after all, right? Whether or not we benefit from this? Well:
The winners include heirs to large estates, people who do their taxes themselves, high-income households as well as low-income households, and corporations with high tax rates.
The major potential losers in this bill are taxpayers in high-income tax states, such as NY, NJ, CA, and accountants. Accountants may suffer as a result of this bill because its newly simplified tax code could make it easy and less stressful enough for the American people that they may no longer wish to hire an accountant to do their taxes for them.
And the taxpayers in these high-income tax states, more specifically the taxpayers in the middle-class, may suffer as a result of this bill because one of the elements of the tax plan includes the elimination of state and local tax deductions. This means that these taxpayers will no longer have the write-offs provided by their local government and they will have to pay their taxes in full.
The upper class will be fine because they have enough money to not have to worry and the lower class as well because of the new tax code, but the middle class isn’t poor enough to receive the same benefits as the less fortunate and they aren’t rich enough to be careless with their money.
But if you’re from one of these states, I wouldn’t worry too much. Your local government seems to be taking a strong stand for you in this bill. NY Representative Peter King told Fox News, “I’m not going to sign on to anything until the full package is fully analyzed by economists.” Other representatives from these high-tax states have also spoken out publicly on the bill saying they will openly fight the tax reform with all they have if it means the suffering of their middle-class citizens.
Overall, this is looking like it could become a historic tax reform bill and if it takes after the likes of Bush’s, Reagan’s or Kennedy’s then it will literally help create millions of jobs for Americans. There are still some kinks to work out but it looks very promising so far. And who can argue with a bill that builds America back up and puts money into both the government’s and citizens’ pockets?