Bipartisan review: Senate GOP bill would hike taxes for 13.8M
WASHINGTON — The Senate Republican tax overhaul would increase taxes for some 13.8 million moderate-income American households, a bipartisan analysis found.
The assessment by Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation emerged as the Senate’s taxwriting committee began working yesterday toward the first major revamp of the tax system in about 30 years. President Trump has called for a steeper tax cut for wealthy Americans and pressed GOP leaders to add a contentious health care change to the already complex mix.
In Trump’s latest tax tweet, he commended GOP leaders for getting the tax legislation closer to passage in recent weeks and then said, “Cut top rate to 35% w/all of the rest going to middle income cuts?”
That puts him at odds with the House legislation that leaves the top rate at 39.6 percent and the Senate bill as written, with the top rate at 38.5 percent.
Trump also said, “Now how about ending the unfair & highly unpopular individual mandate in (Obama)care and reducing taxes even further?”
Overall, the legislation would deeply cut corporate taxes, double the standard deduction used by most Americans, and limit or repeal completely the federal deduction for state and local property, income and sales taxes. It carries high political stakes for Trump and Republican leaders in Congress ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
The congressional analysis found the Senate measure would increase taxes in 2019 for 13.8 million households earning less than $200,000 a year. That group, about 10 percent of all taxpayers, would face tax increases of $100 to $500 in 2019. There also would be increases of greater than $500 for taxpayers with incomes between $75,000 and $200,000. By 2025, 21.4 million households would have steeper tax bills.