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To: Jim from C-Town
The chart displays tax returns, or tax units, not households. A tax unit is an individual, or a married couple who file a tax return jointly, along with all dependents of that individual or married couple. A tax unit is therefore different than a family or a household in certain situations. For example, two persons cohabiting would be considered one household but if they were not legally married, they would file separate tax returns and thus be considered two tax units. A family could consist of a married couple and the wife's elderly mother who lives with them. That family would be considered two tax units since, if the elderly mother had a large enough income, she would be required to file a federal income tax return on her own. Thus the number of tax units will tend to be larger than the number of families or households reported elsewhere.

As for your example, a couple with $65,000 of taxable income, after personal exemptions and either the standard deduction or itemized deductions, currently pays taxes of $1,845 (10% of the first $18,450), plus $6,983 (15% of the next $46,550), or a total of $8,828. Under the proposed plan they would pay $1,500 (10% on the $15,000 above the $50,000 base). That's a savings of $7,328. That's computed with the 2015 Married Filing Joint tax rate schedule. I believe you applied the Single tax rate.

I agree with you that most single persons making $25,000, and couples making $50,000, without children, currently pay income taxes. But that's the cutoff point. You have singles making between $0 and $25,000, and couples making between $0 and $50,000.

Taking a macro view, as in the chart I shared (which is a little dated, but suffices), it's clear that all of the net revenue collected by the government currently comes from tax returns reporting more than $50,000, and better than 64% of the revenue collected is paid by those reporting more than $200,000 in income.

If you add the tax liabilities of those above $50,000 you get $820 billion, which is more than the total net revenue of $767 billion. How can that be? What changes is that the tax code is simplified, and we will no longer be redistributing $67 billion in tax expenditures (i.e. no more refundable tax credits).

As far as deductions go, according to the plan, those within the 10% bracket will keep all or most of their current deductions. Those within the 20% bracket will keep more than half of their current deductions. Those within the 25% bracket will keep fewer deductions.

In 1913, the first year the income tax was imposed (other than the temporary Civil War tax), less than 1% of the population was subject to taxes. The standard deduction back then for a single person was equivalent to $72,000 today, and for a married couple it was equivalent to $96,000. I think this plan is a valiant attempt at restoring something lost during the early progressive movement, when wealth redistribution became the government's primary business. It's time for this to end.

18 posted on 10/07/2015 9:10:22 PM PDT by NaturalBornConservative ("Something that everyone knows isn't worth knowing" ~ Bernard Baruch)
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To: NaturalBornConservative

I agree that the plan is a good start. It makes the system easier and easier is better.


19 posted on 10/07/2015 10:53:22 PM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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