OVERHAUL WILL INCLUDE BRACKET FOR WEALTHY

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Friday that the Republican tax overhaul will include a fourth bracket for the wealthiest Americans at the insistence of President Donald Trump to ensure that high earners don’t benefit more than the middle class.

The bracket would be “designed to make sure we don’t have a big drop in income tax rates for highincome people,” Ryan told “CBS This Morning.” Ryan didn’t say what the tax rate or income level would be for the fourth bracket in the Republican plan.

The outline of the tax plan released last month by the White House and top congressional Republican called for reducing the seven individual tax brackets to three, with the top rate declining to 35 percent from 39.6 percent.

In 2017, the top bracket applied to income of more than $418,400 for individuals and $470,700 for couples filing jointly.

Reducing the top bracket to 35 percent would provide a big savings for the wealthiest Americans and is among the provisions that make the details of the plan so far skew toward relief for the rich. The plan also would eliminate the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax, two provisions that largely benefit the wealthiest Americans.

Ryan, R-Wis., said Friday that the bill being drafted by the House Ways and Means Committee would include the fourth bracket after pressure from Trump.

“The president is the one who has been very insistent that we reintroduce what we call the fourth bracket,” Ryan said.