Tax Reform

On December 2nd won Senate approval and passed on a 51-49 vote with Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee being the only Republican Senator that voted with the Democrats in opposing the passing of this horrendous bill. The Senate's tax plan will do away with most state and local tax deductions meaning taxpayers in high-tax states would lose a write-off. However this plan will allow for deductions of up to $10,000 in local property taxes which sounds like a good thing but I'm sure the Senate will place some sneaky clause to make you meet numerous requirements in order to probably even be eligible, if that's the case then this tax reduction sounds like it could be very difficult to obtain. Now as for the part of the bill dealing with “Pass-Through Provisions does sound like a good thing. Pass through businesses are essentially any business that isn't a corporation and this bill would allow for this deduction to be easier obtained by pass-through businesses thus creating more savings for more pass-through businesses. Individual Mandate is the Obamacare requirement for Americans to have healthcare. This bill will repeal the individual mandate which could reduce government deficits close to $388 billion but on the other hand it would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 13 million at the same time, which sounds like a zero sum game to me because yeah it's nice that we are reducing government deficits but on the other hand millions of Americans will be without healthcare. There are multiple other issues that this bill is going to cover including Child tax credit, Standard deduction, Mortgage deduction, Alternative minimum tax, Estate tax, Medical expense deductions, and most importantly the tax brackets. Now as for the Tax brackets the Senate and House both have different plans. The Senate plan keeps the current seven tax brackets but it does change the rates to 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35, and 38.5 percent respectively.  All the while, on the other hand, the House’s version cuts the brackets down from seven brackets down to four, with the rates being 12, 25, 35, and 39.6 percent. If the Houses version is adapted to the current tax reform this will be bad news for the middle class in general which I feel includes a good amount of students either enrolled at NCTC or their parents will be affected heavily by this bill.