The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is more than 400 pages long. Here’s your cheat sheet for the proposal.
Tax wonks have begun a deep dive into the GOP’s new bill, and the details on what the proposed overhaul means to you are beginning to emerge.
Lawmakers released the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Thursday. The legislation aims to simplify the tax code by slashing itemized deductions and cutting down the number of income tax brackets.
For businesses, Republicans are also seeking to reduce the federal corporate tax rate to 20 percent from its current maximum level of 35 percent.
« This combination of raising the standard deduction and eliminating itemized deductions will make tax preparation easier, but I’m not sure it will be a savings for higher income people, » said Tim Steffen, director of advanced planning at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee.
Even families who are middle income may miss out.
« There will be winners and losers in tax reform, and as it stands now, I worry that the benefits that are claimed to go to middle-income households won’t play out, » said Bill Hoagland, senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Here’s how the bill will affect you if it moves forward without major changes.
Losers: Low income filers with children
Winners: Low-to-middle income households
Republicans want to raise the standard deduction to $24,400 for married couples who file jointly and $12,200 for single filers.
That’s up from $12,700 for married couples and $6,350 for individuals.
Yet this change isn’t as generous as it appears, according to Stan Veliotis, associate professor and director of the Center for Professional Accounting Practices at Fordham University in New York.
Under the current system, a single filer can take a standard deduction of $6,350 and a personal exemption of $4,050. That equates to $10,400 in tax savings compared with the proposed $12,000 standard deduction for singles.
Further, the new framework may not be beneficial to families as it does away with the dependent exemption, which provides $4,050 for each qualifying dependent .
« Dependents are the major thrust, » said Veliotis. « If you take away the dependent exemption for my five kids, that’s $20,000, and the enhanced standard deduction won’t do it for me. »
Republicans have proposed to raise the child tax credit to $1,600 from $1,000. They are also calling for a new $300 credit for each parent and non-child dependent, but this tax break will expire by the end of 2022.
Losers: Households that are inadvertently bumped into a higher bracket
As part of their bill, House Republicans are cutting income tax brackets to four.
Currently, there are seven tax brackets: 10 percent, 15, percent, 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent.
Under the House bill there will be four brackets: 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent.
A group of taxpayers who are currently in the 33 percent bracket will get bumped to 35 percent under the plan. This is because the 35 percent bracket will kick in at lower dollar amounts compared to the current framework.
Winners: The 5.2 million middle-to-high income taxpayers who are subject to this levy.
The bill would end the alternative minimum tax, which essentially requires taxpayers to calculate their liability twice: Once with deductions under the regular income tax rules and once without those breaks.
The AMT begins to apply at $129,700 for single filers and $160,900 for married couples who file jointly.
Losers: Charities, because some itemizers may take the standard deduction instead, student loan borrowers, filers with large medical expenses and more
House Republicans are slashing most itemized deductions, but will sweeten the pot on charitable contributions. Donors can take a deduction on cash contributions equal to up to 60 percent of their adjusted gross income.
That’s up from the current limit of 50 percent of AGI.
Tax breaks that are going out the window include deductions for medical expenses and student loan interest. Deductions for alimony, casualty losses from theft or catastrophe, moving expenses and tax prep fees are also out.
Consider the medical expense deduction, which allows you to deduct qualified medical costs that exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income.
« Imagine your mom needs long-term care and you reduce your hours at work to be a caregiver, that’s the person for whom this can really matter, » said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute.
Republicans are keeping the mortgage interest deduction, but they’re applying limits. New buyers can deduct interest on loans up to $500,000, down from $1 million.
Further, homeowners can only deduct interest on the mortgage for their principal residence, meaning you won’t benefit from this tax break if you have a vacation home.
You’ll also want to think twice about taking out a home equity loan or line of credit, as the bill won’t permit you to deduct the interest.
Losers: Residents in states with high income taxes.
Federal breaks for state and local taxes, known as SALT, are among the itemized deductions that Congress seeks to limit. These levies include property, income or sales taxes.
House Republicans have proposed allowing households to write off state and local property taxes up to $10,000.
The state and local tax deductions are particularly important to households in states with high income taxes, including New York, New Jersey and California.
The three counties with the highest median property tax all surpass $10,000 and are in New York, according to the Tax Foundation: Nassau County, Rockland County and Westchester County.
House Republicans have left 401(k) contributions as-is in the bill, but they’ve made other tweaks.
For instance, they want to repeal a rule that allows you to reverse or « recharacterize » Roth IRA conversions.
One reason you may want to recharacterize is if your Roth conversion inadvertently bumps you into a higher tax bracket.
Republicans also want to ease rules for hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans. Under the current regulatory framework, once you’ve pulled money from your 401(k) for an emergency, you can’t contribute again until six months have passed.
This rule does away with the waiting period, meaning employees can continue saving in their retirement plans.
Under the proposal, companies can also choose whether those hardship withdrawals will include earnings and employer contributions — and not just the employee’s contribution.
Winners: Partnerships, sole proprietorships and S-corporations in the top income tax bracket.
The new framework lowers the maximum rate on business income for so-called pass through entities, including sole proprietorships, partnerships and S-corporations, bringing it down to 25 percent.
Income from « pass throughs » flows to the business owner directly and is currently taxed at that person’s individual tax rate, which can be as high as 39.
