Let us look at the FACTS about who pays the most taxes in America per capita and the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ) (the TCJA) (aka the Trump tax cuts):
And, of course, one does not need to be a math whiz to know that the TCJA's $10K cap on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) will hit the top 15% of income earners the hardest. The $10K SALT cap cost me about $500 this year in actual additional taxes paid compared to last year. But, if I made, say, $300K per year and owned a home worth $600K, the $10K SALT cap would have cost me about $4,000 in actual additional taxes paid!
"The top 1% of tax payers pay 38% of all income taxes yet only have a 20% share of total AGI [adjusted gross income]. Furthermore, the top 50% of tax payers pay practically all of the nation’s federal taxes (97.3%) while commanding 87.25% of total AGI. " (How Much Money Do The Top Income Earners Make?)
"The IRS has recently released an analysis of the distribution of the income tax burden for Tax Year 2016. The new data shows that the top one percent of income earners bear the burden of 37 percent of all income taxes. This is nearly twice as much as their share of income (19.7 percent). The top 25 percent of earners shoulder nearly 86 percent of the income tax load. Combined, the top 50 percent of earners are responsible for 97 percent income taxes collected. The other half of filers pay just 3 percent of all income taxes." (Who Pays Income Taxes?)
"One of the least discussed parts of America’s income tax is how progressive it is, and the tax overhaul didn’t change that fact. In 2018, top earners will pay a higher share of income taxes." (Top 20% of Americans Will Pay 87% of Income Tax)
"Let’s say that John, a single taxpayer, earned $16,000 last year. That would have put him in a 15-percent tax bracket in 2017. He would have paid 10 percent in tax on his income up to $9,325 and 15 percent on the balance of his income up to $16,000. That’s a pretty significant tax bill of $1,933: $932 on the first $9,325, plus $1,001 of the $6,675 balance, for a total of $1,933.
"The TCJA provides for a new 12-percent bracket for incomes from $9,525 up to $38,700 for single filers. John would pay 10 percent in tax on his income up to $9,525, but only 12 percent on the balance. As a result, John's 2018 tax bill would come out to just $1,729 compared to $1,933: 10 percent of $9,525 or $952, plus 12 percent of the $6,475 balance or $777. That's $204 less, pretty significant for someone who earns just $16,000 a year." (The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: What Does It Mean for You Personally?)
"A Pew Research Center analysis of IRS data from 2015, the most recent available, shows that taxpayers with incomes of $200,000 or more paid well over half (58.8%) of federal income taxes, though they accounted for only 4.5% of all returns filed (6.8% of all taxable returns).
"By contrast, taxpayers with incomes below $30,000 filed nearly 44% of all returns but paid just 1.4% of all federal income tax – in fact, two-thirds of the nearly 66 million returns filed by people in that lowest income tier owed no tax at all. (The IRS tax data used here are estimates based on a stratified probability sample of all returns.)" (Who pays U.S. income tax, and how much?)
"The effective tax rate for those earning less than $30,000 worked out to 4.9 percent. It’s anticipated that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act(TCJA) will reduce the effective tax rate for the poorest 20 percent of Americans by about 5.5 percent beginning in 2018." (How Much Do the Wealthy Pay in Taxes Each Year?)
"The child tax credit was $1,000 per child under age 17 in 2017. The TCJA pushes this up to $2,000 per child, an increase of $1,000. The first $1,400 is refundable. This means that a parent with zero tax liability would receive a refund from the IRS for $1,400 for each dependent child he can claim.
"If John’s tax bill was $400 and he could claim the child tax credit for one child, the tax credit would wipe out his tax debt so John would end up not owing the IRS anything at all. That leaves $1,600 remaining of the $2,000 credit, of which $1,400 is refundable. So John would actually receive a $1,400 refund." (The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: What Does It Mean for You Personally?)
"The IRS has recently released an analysis of the distribution of the income tax burden for Tax Year 2016. The new data shows that the top one percent of income earners bear the burden of 37 percent of all income taxes. This is nearly twice as much as their share of income (19.7 percent). The top 25 percent of earners shoulder nearly 86 percent of the income tax load. Combined, the top 50 percent of earners are responsible for 97 percent income taxes collected. The other half of filers pay just 3 percent of all income taxes." (Who Pays Income Taxes?)
"One of the least discussed parts of America’s income tax is how progressive it is, and the tax overhaul didn’t change that fact. In 2018, top earners will pay a higher share of income taxes." (Top 20% of Americans Will Pay 87% of Income Tax)
"Let’s say that John, a single taxpayer, earned $16,000 last year. That would have put him in a 15-percent tax bracket in 2017. He would have paid 10 percent in tax on his income up to $9,325 and 15 percent on the balance of his income up to $16,000. That’s a pretty significant tax bill of $1,933: $932 on the first $9,325, plus $1,001 of the $6,675 balance, for a total of $1,933.
"The TCJA provides for a new 12-percent bracket for incomes from $9,525 up to $38,700 for single filers. John would pay 10 percent in tax on his income up to $9,525, but only 12 percent on the balance. As a result, John's 2018 tax bill would come out to just $1,729 compared to $1,933: 10 percent of $9,525 or $952, plus 12 percent of the $6,475 balance or $777. That's $204 less, pretty significant for someone who earns just $16,000 a year." (The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: What Does It Mean for You Personally?)
"A Pew Research Center analysis of IRS data from 2015, the most recent available, shows that taxpayers with incomes of $200,000 or more paid well over half (58.8%) of federal income taxes, though they accounted for only 4.5% of all returns filed (6.8% of all taxable returns).
"By contrast, taxpayers with incomes below $30,000 filed nearly 44% of all returns but paid just 1.4% of all federal income tax – in fact, two-thirds of the nearly 66 million returns filed by people in that lowest income tier owed no tax at all. (The IRS tax data used here are estimates based on a stratified probability sample of all returns.)" (Who pays U.S. income tax, and how much?)
"The effective tax rate for those earning less than $30,000 worked out to 4.9 percent. It’s anticipated that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act(TCJA) will reduce the effective tax rate for the poorest 20 percent of Americans by about 5.5 percent beginning in 2018." (How Much Do the Wealthy Pay in Taxes Each Year?)
"The child tax credit was $1,000 per child under age 17 in 2017. The TCJA pushes this up to $2,000 per child, an increase of $1,000. The first $1,400 is refundable. This means that a parent with zero tax liability would receive a refund from the IRS for $1,400 for each dependent child he can claim.
"If John’s tax bill was $400 and he could claim the child tax credit for one child, the tax credit would wipe out his tax debt so John would end up not owing the IRS anything at all. That leaves $1,600 remaining of the $2,000 credit, of which $1,400 is refundable. So John would actually receive a $1,400 refund." (The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: What Does It Mean for You Personally?)
And, of course, one does not need to be a math whiz to know that the TCJA's $10K cap on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) will hit the top 15% of income earners the hardest. The $10K SALT cap cost me about $500 this year in actual additional taxes paid compared to last year. But, if I made, say, $300K per year and owned a home worth $600K, the $10K SALT cap would have cost me about $4,000 in actual additional taxes paid!
