In 1 Chart, the Differences Between the House and Senate Tax Reform Bills

The Daily Signal ^ | December 3, 2017 | Adam Michel

[octex]

Saving this tax cut comparison chart. Thanks

[remember]

Here you go. I don't know if the Senate's bill did the same.

The personal exemption is eliminated under both the House and Senate bills. The following is from Forbes:

Exemptions. Currently, you can claim a $4,050 personal exemption for yourself, your spouse, and each of your dependents. Additionally, if you are over age 65, blind or disabled, you can tack on $1,300 to your standard deduction ($1,600 for unmarried taxpayers). Under both plans, these would be "consolidated into this larger standard deduction" - meaning they disappear.

The effect of this is described in a Business Insider article titled The 'doubled standard deduction' in the GOP tax plan is a lie:

Here's how that math works. Let's say you are single with no dependents, and you have a moderate income. Currently, you get to take the standard deduction ($6,350) and one personal exemption ($4,050). If you are 65 or older, you also get to take an additional standard deduction ($1,250). That adds up to $10,400, or $11,650 if you're over 65.

The Republican plan would replace all these provisions with a single deduction of $12,000 ($24,000 for married couples.) That's a 15% increase — except for seniors, who get a 3% increase.

For 2018, the numbers were scheduled to go up to $6,500 (standard deduction), $4,150 (personal exemption), and $1,300 (over 65 or blind). All three of those add up to $11,950 meaning that the new law gives just a $50 cut (0.4 percent) for those people. I believe that a single person who is over 65 AND blind gets an additional $1,300, meaning that they would get a loss of $1,250 (10 percent). In any event, it's highly misleading to contend that the standard deduction is nearly doubling and not mention that the personal exemption is disappearing.