The Senate Republican’s tax cut legislation would actually raise taxes for 9.1% of filers, in 2019, according to a new report.
The report, by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan committee that is part of Congress, said that the tax bill for 6.8% of filers would increase more than $500. Meanwhile, another 2.3% of filers would have their bill increase $100 to $500.
Those increases would impact a combined 16 million people.
Tax reform is one of President Donald Trump’s main legislative objectives after nearly a year of high-profile defeats including a failed effort to repeal Obamacare. Passage of the tax overhaul would represent his first major legislative win in his administration’s inaugural year.
Trump is heading to Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with House Republicans ahead of an expected vote on their version of the tax bill. The GOP’s tax plan has been criticized as a massive win for the wealthiest Americans. For example, Josh Hoxie, director of the Project on Opportunity and Taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies, a self-described progressive think tank, called it “nothing short of a boon to the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else.”
The JCT report, released last week, found that 59.7% of taxpayers would see a decline in tax liability in 2019. By its calculation, 40.4% would reduce their payments by more than $500, while the remaining 19.3% would get $100 to $500 in relief.
The liability for 31.1% would stay about the same, the report said, which took inflation into account.
Among people with $200,000 to $500,000 in annual income, 20.4% would see a tax increase of more than $500, in 2019. Meanwhile 72.2% would lower their tax payments by $500 or more.
The report showed that the tax liabilities peak in 2025, with 13.8% of taxpayers paying more in that year. At the same time, 54% would have their tax bills decline.
