The highest-income households — the top 0.1 percent — would get “an average tax cut of about $1.3 million, 16.9 percent of<br />after-tax income.” By contrast, those in the middle fifth of incomes would get a 0.5 percent tax cut, worth about $260.<br />For anyone who thinks that Republican control of the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives means<br />that an overhaul of the tax code will zip through at bobsled speed, there is an important phrase to remember:<br />“Blah, blah, blah, blah.”<br />That was the reaction of the Republican speaker of the House, John A. Boehner of Ohio, in 2014 to a sweeping overhaul<br />of the federal tax code proposed by the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee — and a member of his own party.<br />The estate tax, which affects the top 0.2 percent sliver of households, would disappear, as would most itemized deductions, including one<br />that allows the deduction of state and local taxes — dear to anyone who lives where there is a state or city income tax.<br />The border adjustment tax — a complex arrangement that would have the effect of adding a 20 percent tax to any imports sold in the United States<br />and nothing on exports — has drawn support from agriculture, manufacturing and technology businesses like General Electric, Boeing, Dow Chemical and Oracle.<br />The companies are exporters and argue that the move would “support American jobs and American-made products.”<br />Sectors that rely heavily on imports — retailers, foreign carmakers<br />and oil interests led by the billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch — have declared war on the idea, saying it would hurt consumers by raising prices.
