Republican Plan Would Raise Taxes on Millions<br />Nearly half of all middle-class families would pay more in taxes in 2026 than they would under current rules if the proposed House tax bill became law,<br />and about one-third would pay more in 2018, according to a New York Times analysis, a striking finding for a bill promoted as a middle-class tax cut.<br />The preliminary Times analysis found that, in 2018, the plan would cut taxes for about 68 percent of families in the middle class, broadly defined as those earning between two-thirds<br />and twice the median household income, or between about $50,000 and $160,000 per year for a family of three.<br />PERCENTAGE TAX INCREASE<br />The bill is devised to allow millions of Americans to simplify their tax returns — to file, as Republican leaders put it, “on a postcard.” The<br />plan would most likely simplify taxes for some taxpayers, who would choose to take advantage of the plan’s more generous standard deduction.<br />One such analysis, from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, found<br />that 8 percent of middle-income earners would pay more in 2018 — and 21 percent in 2027 — with upper-middle-class taxpayers more likely to see their taxes rise.<br />Of the roughly 6.5 million middle-class families whose taxes would rise in 2018 under the bill, about 800,000<br />took advantage of the medical expense provision, deducting more than $17,000 on average from their taxes.<br />But the analysis suggests that among lower- and middle-class families, the greatest benefits of the<br />bill flow to those taxpayers who already file simple returns and do not itemize their taxes.
