2018 tax cut results (not going to shock anyone)

[Zan15]

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/07/the...write_partner/

The first data showing how all Americans are faring under Donald Trump reveal the poor and working classes sinking slightly, the middle class treading water, the upper-middle class growing and the richest, well, luxuriating in rising rivers of greenbacks.


More than half of Americans had to make ends meet in 2018 on less money than in 2016, my analysis of new income and tax data shows.

The nearly 87 million taxpayers making less than $50,000 had to get by in 2018 on $307 less per household than in 2016, the year before Trump took office, I find.

That 57% of American households were better off under Obama contradicts Trump's often-repeated claim he created the best economy ever until the pandemic.


This is the first data on the first full year when Trump was president. It also is the first year of the Radical Republican tax system overhaul, passed in December 2017. The Trump tax law, the most significant tax policy change since 1986, was passed without a single public hearing or a single Democratic vote.


Trump policies overwhelmingly favor the top 7% of Americans. And, oh, do they benefit!

Prosperous and rich people, the data reveal, include half a million who are not even filing tax returns. Yet they are not being pursued as tax cheats, a separate report shows.



Results:

Who saves on taxes

The Trump/Republican tax savings were highly concentrated up the income ladder with hardly any tax savings going to the working poor and only a smidgen to the middle class.

Those making $50,000 to $100,000 for example, paid just three-fourths of 1 percentage point less of their incomes to our federal government. People making $2 million to $2.5 million saw their effective tax rate fall by about three times that much.

Now let's compare two groups, those making $50,000 to $100,000 and those declaring $500,000 to $1 million. The second group averaged nine times as much income as the first group in 2018.

Under the Trump tax law, the first group's annual income taxes declined on average by $143, while the second group's tax reduction averaged $17,800.

Put another way, a group that made nine times as much money enjoyed about 125 times as much in income tax savings.



and it gets worse:

Trump ignores rich tax cheats

In the three years ending in 2016, the IRS identified 879,415 high-income Americans who did not even bother to file. These tax cheats owed an estimated $45.7 billion in taxes, the treasury inspector general for Tax Administration reported May 29.

Under Trump more than half a million cases of high-income Americans who didn't file a tax return "will likely not be pursued," the inspector general wrote.

One of the Koch brothers was under IRS criminal investigation until Trump assumed office and the service abruptly dropped the case. DCReport's five-part series last year showed, from a thousand pages of documents, that William Ingraham Koch, who lives one door away from Mar-a-Lago, is collecting more than $100 million a year without paying income taxes.



Don't worry we will pay for it:

Borrowing to help the rich

Trump's tax law will require at least $1.5 trillion in added federal debt because it falls far short of paying for itself through increased economic growth even without the pandemic. Most of the tax savings were showered on rich Americans and the corporations they control. Most of the negative effects will fall on the middle class and poor Americans in the form of Trump's efforts to reduce government services.


And if your balls are not all up in a knot how about:

Infuriating fact

There's one more enlightening and perhaps infuriating detail I sussed from the IRS data.

The number of households making $1 million or more but paying no income taxes soared 41% under the new Trump tax law. Under Obama, there were just 394 such households. With Trump, this grew to 556 households making on average $3.5 million without contributing one cent to our government.

Again, Trump seems to have forgotten all about the Forgotten Man. But he's busy doing all he can to help the rich, then stick you with their tax bills.

[Volatilis]

If I didnt have to pay for tax I wouldnt either.

Its no surprise the mega wealthy act like children who dont want to give away their piggy bank savings because "they earned it"

[some guy]

I can't believe a republican tax policy benefited the wealthy. They are always spouting about how they are fighting the common man.

/s

[D Luniz]

I can't believe a republican tax policy benefited the wealthy. They are always spouting about how they are fighting the common man.

/s

when the only people you talk to are million-dollar donors, then you start to think these are the "common man"

[Mihalik]

sip

I'm shocked. It's like the Congressional Budget Office hasn't detailed this before they passed the bill.

Now... If you managed to take all that...and somehow translate it into whatever language Goopers and Trumpkins speak I would personally give you the Nobel prize in economics AND literature. I'm not sure how I'd do that, but if you make that happen, I'd get it done.

[Kaleredar]

While I'd love to see the resident Trump supporters around here try and support this... I'm afraid the OP has made the grave mistake of posting hard numbers, research, statistics and evidence that tend to drive them away from threads.

OP, could you try and reframe this as the baseless think-piece of some overpaid talking head pundit instead? That might attract them.


On topic, however... I always find it funny that Conservatives seem to pine for the post-war days of the 50s and 60s when the American family was "at its most powerful" but conveniently leave out that taxation on the highest earners at the time was literally 90% of their income.

Unfortunately I think some of them missed that taxation part and instead concluded that the rank oppression of minorities at the time must have been what "made america great," and that instead is what America should be pursuing.

[Ripster42]

On topic, however... I always find it funny that Conservatives seem to pine for the post-war days of the 50s and 60s when the American family was "at its most powerful" but conveniently leave out that taxation on the highest earners at the time was literally 90% of their income.

No it wasn't. This is the same problem the GOP is having with understanding tax brackets. BTW, I don't generally agree with the stance of that article (9% decrease in the tax rate of top earners isn't a big change and deliberately ignores the corresponding decrease in corporate taxes), but the 90% number is bull.

[Drutt]

Remember when all the Trumpers here were gleefully posting about how they all saw massive increases in their take home?

Yeah. Somehow I struggle to believe they're all mega rich, so that means...

[Felya]

Remember when all the Trumpers here were gleefully posting about how they all saw massive increases in their take home?

Yeah. Somehow I struggle to believe they're all mega rich, so that means...

One of them was retired and the rest are gone......

[Temp name]

No it wasn't. This is the same problem the GOP is having with understanding tax brackets. BTW, I don't generally agree with the stance of that article (9% decrease in the tax rate of top earners isn't a big change and deliberately ignores the corresponding decrease in corporate taxes), but the 90% number is bull.

According to what you posted, there was a 91% tax bracket.
But yeah, (almost?) no one paid a total tax amount equal to 90%

[DingDongKing]

Remember when all the Trumpers here were gleefully posting about how they all saw massive increases in their take home?

Yeah. Somehow I struggle to believe they're all mega rich, so that means...

Hint: they were chatting shit. They'll literally say anything to validate their stupidity.

[nonameelf]

I'm sure it'll trickle down any second now.

Oh wait, they just used the money to buyback their own stock. Haha, silly me.

[GreenJesus]

What should happen is tax rate is kept the same, but deductions for depreciation etc should be removed. Just because a company is growing & spending capital like amazon doesn't mean they shouldn't pay taxes. Their excuse of "but our employees pay taxes for us" should be laughed at and ignored.

[SirBeef]

Hint: they were chatting shit. They'll literally say anything to validate their stupidity.

That extra $4 a paycheck sure added up to a lot.

[Hinastorm]

Not auditing super rich people WHO DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO FILE is pretty fucking bonkers.

Like, why should I follow any laws that i'll probably get away with at this point? Why should I not work under the table and claim unemployment at the same time? Because of some nebulous morality? That the rich don't have to follow?

Like, my takeaway from this is that I should change my tax withholding at work so I keep as much of my paycheck as possible, then just not file. The rich are doing it and getting away with it, why shouldn't I?

This country is a clownshow.

[Kellhound]

Remember when all the Trumpers here were gleefully posting about how they all saw massive increases in their take home?

Yeah. Somehow I struggle to believe they're all mega rich, so that means...

I saw a significant drop in my taxes, and I am not rich. I pay more in state income tax (for a state I do not live in no less) than I do in federal taxes now. It really depends on your situation.

[Ripster42]

According to what you posted, there was a 91% tax bracket.
But yeah, (almost?) no one paid a total tax amount equal to 90%

The difference between a 91% tax bracket and "literally 90% of their income" is, once again, the same problem the GOP has constantly. I don't know why you'd even make this comment.

[Resurgo]

eh, I can see some of the republican rubes (that I've seen anyways) argue that it's great the rich keep more of their money so they can create more jobs

[Zan15]

Not auditing super rich people WHO DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO FILE is pretty fucking bonkers.

Like, why should I follow any laws that i'll probably get away with at this point? Why should I not work under the table and claim unemployment at the same time? Because of some nebulous morality? That the rich don't have to follow?

Like, my takeaway from this is that I should change my tax withholding at work so I keep as much of my paycheck as possible, then just not file. The rich are doing it and getting away with it, why shouldn't I?

This country is a clownshow.

unfortunatly the systems catch easy filers with non complicated returns/income because its automated.

the rich with all their fancy fancy...not so much.

[Paranoid Android]

A little off topic and could go into a few threads but I will post here.



So at 2:22 in the video he shows a graph of a breakdown in job loss mainly due to Covid.

-11.2% for African Americans
-6.4% for White Americans

-18.9% for lesser than high school diploma
- 0.1% for BA or higher

-7.8% for women
-6.7% for men

So the Big One is between high school and college educated. Yes that is not a typo it is 0.1% job loss. The video points out that this was of course due to people who work restaurant, service jobs, etc. No doubt those were hit the hardest but its amazing it has not been affected college educated at all.

Now my statement here is when you look at polls for Trump and the economy for some reason he still holds good numbers. The result is probably the college educated, who are not effected see the economy as still okay for them. Doe not mean all college educated are voting for Trump are they are likely the majority who agree on Trump's economy. Sadly we know the cult, with the majority base now high school educated likely say Trump is doing great with the economy.

Might be a little difficult to tie into the tax part of this thread but my overall message is the structure is fixed for the upper class.