Although I tried, keeping tabs on additions and deletions to the Trump Tax Plan became a daunting task.
The inevitability of political bargaining took over as it always does. Except this time the Democrats asked for nothing and that’s what they got, nothing.
To my knowledge, it was clear that not a single Democrat was going to vote for the Tax Bill and therefor they refused to take up a bargaining position for their vote. So who were the bargainers? The Lobbyists with money and the Republicans with a vote. If you want my vote, I want this in return.
Although it will be known as the Trump Tax Plan, it could be more accurately described as the Lobbyist and Republican Tax Plan.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D) from Missouri tweeted yesterday afternoon, “This is so bad. We have just gotten list of amendments to be included in bill NOT from our R colleagues, but from lobbyists downtown. None of us have seen this list, but lobbyists have it. Need I say more? Disgusting. And we probably will not even be given time to read them.”
There will be some surprises in that flurry of last minute changes and I expect that I won’t even see them all for some time to come. I have to follow this because I’m getting questions almost daily about how it might affect individuals and small businesses. I had a young couple with two children in the office Thursday who asked how it might affect them.
At that point, all I could do was address the three main points that I knew would change their tax picture going forward:
- They would lose the Personal Exemption(s) Deduction of $16,200 ($4,050 times the four family members).
- They would gain $11,400 Standard Deduction due it being increased from $12,600 to $24,000.
- They would gain $2,000 from the Child Tax Credit increase from $1,000 each to $2,000 each.
Net Result – ($16,200 – 11,400) x .15 = $720 minus $2,000 = ($1,280) REFUND TO THIS YOUNG FAMILY OF FOUR
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