A CPA / former corporate tax director breaks down the new tax law

[mainer]

And tells Susan Collins what a tool she is.

SOUTH PORTLAND — Sen. Susan Collins’ recent commentary about why she supported the just-passed tax bill confirms that she did not read and understand the bill, that she lacks basic common sense, or both.

She repeats the misleading party spin that the standard deduction is nearly doubled, to $24,000, and that a family with $24,000 in income will pay no taxes. She forgets to note that the law also eliminates the personal exemption. Under prior law, in 2018 the first $25,450 of income earned by a married couple with one child would have been excluded from tax; for married parents of three, the first $33,750 earned would have been excluded. So for many families, the $24,000 excluded from taxes under the new law is less than the total exempt under the old law.

She talks about the 72 percent of Mainers who use the standard deduction, but ignored that the 28 percent of Mainers who itemize deductions are homeowners who pay 80 percent of the federal taxes in Maine. She goes on to state that a childless Maine married couple earning $60,000 will save more than $900 in taxes. That is correct – their tax cut would be $914 – but only if they don’t itemize deductions. Of course, she ignores that a significant number of Mainers who earn $60,000 a year own a home and itemize deductions. Assuming a modest home in Portland and average itemized deductions, that $914 tax cut winds up being just $298.

She says that married parents who earn $60,000 and have two children would get a tax cut of about $1,700. Again, this is true only under certain circumstances: If the children are both under age 17 and the couple does not itemize deductions. If their children are both over age 16 and the couple owns this modest home in Portland, their tax cut would be just $125, not $1,700.

http://www.pressherald.com/2017/12/28/commentary-collins-cant-seem-to-deduce-unfairness-of-republican-tax-bill/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Excellent commentary

Thank you for sharing this here. Strongly recommend folks go red the whole dang thing!

[Maeve]

2. Lays it out quite well! k&r

[Hoyt]

3. Agree that the doubling of standard deduction -- while eliminating exemptions -- is a hoax. But

I think the Child Tax Credit pretty much makes up for removing the exemptions for most people.

Other aspects of the bill -- and the long-term impact -- are detrimental, but most people will see tax reductions.

[Igel]

6. In other words, what's obviously true is probably true.

The bill's so complex that if you try to summarize it in 300 words you will certainly say something that is either incorrect or can easily be misconstrued incorrectly.

So Collins is ignorant or evil for saying something that's overbroad.

So's the OP.

Or neither's either.

The difficulty being, still, when you simplify to fit the space provided, if you simplify to make a point, then you've oversimplified to the point of being in error or construed to be in error unless you're very, very careful. At which point you no longer fit the space provided or have recomplexified the matter.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. The Comments Appear To Be Coming . . .

. . .from the usual supects. By that, i mean moron.

[BSdetect]

5. Too many facts for deplorables to understand. They latch on to simplistic slogans.