The tax reform bill helps corporations more than working parents
When politicians talk about taxes, it’s a requirement to champion the middle class–whether or not middle income earners will actually benefit.
Experts say that the new tax reform bill being proposed by Congress benefits corporations more than low- or middle-income earners. The proposal would permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, a change that, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, would mean businesses would receive about $1 trillion in tax cuts, which they estimate would reduce federal revenues by $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
Meanwhile, some are lauding the fact that the proposal doubles the standard deduction for middle-class couples filing jointly, but it also cuts a set of tax credits for those over 65.
And despite Ivanka’s marketing campaign, the tax plan falls short for parents. The plan does expand the child tax credit from $1,000 to $1,600, but that’s short of the $2,000 that was previously promised. And for many Americans, it’s less than the cost of one month of daycare.
The bill also proposes changing the rules for claiming the child tax credit, a change that the New York Times reports would hit immigrant parents whose children were born in the United States. They report that the bill would roll back eligibility for about 3 million children in working families.
The bill would also repeal the adoption tax credit (the maximum amount of the deduction in 2016 was $13,460, while adoption in the U.S. can cost families up to $48,000).
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