Federal spending
Unconvinced
Regarding “GOP commitments, Senate to begin debate on tax plan” (Page A7, Thursday), I certainly don’t claim to know the details of the proposed tax cut, but I would bet none of our congressmen have read a 1,000-page bill. The only ones studying the details are the lobbyists to make sure all their perks are included. My congressman, Kevin Brady, seems to only want to talk about a postcard and a reduction in the number of tax brackets. I wonder just how many taxpayers will be able to file their taxes on a postcard, if there ever is such a thing. By the time you enter all your identification there will only be room to enter your total income and the tax due on it.
As for reducing the tax brackets to only three, that’s no benefit at all. The more tax brackets there are, the better your taxable income will match your bracket. With few brackets the income range for each bracket will be large and the person at the upper limit will have a much larger taxable income than the person at the bottom, but each will pay the same tax rate.
I also wouldn’t get too excited by the increase in the standard deduction. The last I saw on the proposed bill is that although the standard deduction was to be doubled, the personal exemptions were being eliminated to take away any significant reduction in taxable income.
I would suggest no one spend too much time at this point planning how to spend their tax reduction windfall.