With the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also known as the Trump Tax Cuts, Congress will have a significant” tax mountain” in 2025. The outcome of trillions of dollars in revenue cuts and the course of coverage for years to come will largely depend on this year’s elections. At play are specific duty rates, the doubled regular calculation, the bigger baby tax credit, the new tax break for businesses that file as individuals, and the increased exemptions for the estate tax. This week, The Washington Examiner will publish a series on crucial factors in this significant revenue fight. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. In this final story, Vice President Kamala Harris discusses her commitment to keep taxes on those who earn less than$ 400,000 annually.
If she wins the election, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has n’t released a detailed economic plan, would have to thread the needle between two seemingly contradictory tax pledges.
According to her campaign, she is adhering to President Joe Biden‘s pledge not to raise taxes on those earning less than$ 400,000. However, she also appears to be keeping Biden’s promises to let the 2017 Trump income cuts” be expired” when portions of the law slip next month.
That expiration would raise taxes on middle-income earners in the absence of new legislation. The 2017 overhaul included lower tax rates, an enlarged child tax credit, a doubled standard deduction, and many other provisions that, on balance, cut taxes for people below the$ 400, 000 threshold.
At a Wisconsin campaign rally in late July, Harris said,” We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to advance.” The defining objective of my presidency will be to increase the middle class.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also known as the Trump tax cuts, did include cuts for the lower and middle classes, which Democrats have almost universally opposed.
A contemporary analysis of the 2017 tax code rewrite from the Tax Policy Center, a center-left nonprofit research organization, found that it would cut taxes across the income spectrum. According to a score of the bill from the Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides tax analysis to Congress, the majority of middle-income households would experience significant tax cuts. A report from the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s nonpartisan in-house group of budget experts, indicated that the law reduced tax rates for all groups in 2018.
Therefore, Harris would either need to extend the cuts or collaborate with a potentially divided Congress to create a new tax law if elected.
” If they really want to keep the under$ 400, 000 promise, then they will have to write a new bill”, said Gerald Friedman, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. What can they do if the majority in Congress is there?
Harris has n’t disclosed specifics about her long-term economic objectives. Her team pointed instead to the budget that Biden released in March, which promises to” cut taxes for middle- and low-income Americans by$ 765 billion over 10 years”.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt offered a different take, saying Harris would, in fact, hike taxes.
Kamala Harris says she wo n’t sit down for an interview because she knows her tax increases are very unpopular and she is trying to hide them from the American people, according to Leavitt. ” But like Joe Biden already promised, Kamala Harris will sign the largest tax increase in American history, costing the average working family more than$ 40, 000 per year on top of the record-high inflation created by Bidenomics”.
Trump has pledged to keep the tax cuts effective from 2017 and increase them significantly. He has stated in recent weeks that he will abolish taxes on Social Security benefits and tipped wages. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, those changes would have significant effects on revenues: the first would reduce revenues by about$ 250 billion over ten years. The second would cost the Treasury$ 1.6 trillion. He has also mentioned lowering the corporate tax rate to 15 %. The 2017 tax overhaul lowered the rate from 35 % to 21 %.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former Congressional Budget Office director, offered criticisms of both candidates.
He said Harris was “kind of stuck” between her two tax goals, but he added that he was n’t a fan of Trump’s tip wages and Social Security tax breaks, saying that neither of these should be treated differently from other forms of income and that neither one makes sense from a “tax-efficiency point of view.”
Republicans contend that Harris ‘ views on taxes contradict what she said during her campaign for president in 2020 and are a part of a wider pattern in her campaign, which claims she changed her mind without giving an explanation.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) stated that” Kamala Harris is once again telling the American people not to believe their lying eyes.” She has repeatedly pledged to repeal the Trump tax cuts “on day one” and will continue the reckless economic agenda of the Biden-Harris administration, which has resulted in double-digit inflation, both of which are tax increases for hardworking, middle-class Americans.
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI ), on the other hand, said Trump will effectively raise taxes on everyone via his proposed tariffs.
” If you make less than$ 400, 000 a year, you will not see your taxes go up under Kamala Harris”, Kildee said. Donald Trump wants to raise taxes on working people by imposing higher tariffs on everyday goods, stands out in stark contrast to this. Donald Trump has been convicted of fraud and is phony. The former president prioritized a massive tax cut for billionaires and his wealthy friends during his first term, which was funded by putting trillions of dollars in the national deficit at risk.
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Harris has overtaken Trump for the top spot in the RealClearPolitics polling average, but her reluctance to release a thorough campaign platform does not appear to be hurt her in the polls.
However, Trump continues to hold the edge when it comes to economic issues. He surpassed Harris 2-to-1 in a CNBC poll on how to handle the economy better.
