People who claim the rich are getting all the tax breaks are playing games with the numbers

To The Daily Sun,

After the president signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), there was a slew of articles on how this was going to be a hand out to the rich and bad for the middle class. I have written three letters now saying just the opposite and provided the math on why I’m convinced that is “fake news.”.I kept wondering where all the journalist came up with their “professional” analysis so I read many of those articles and paid close attention to the source. What I found was the TAX POLICY CENTER (TPC) was at the heart of virtually all of the articles. So, I went to their website and started digging into their analysis. I started with the “Tax Calculator” (http://tpc-tax-calculator.urban.org/ ),which provides what “they” project will be your tax reduction under the TCJA compared to what it would be if the TCJA didn’t pass. Since I’m married with adult children I clicked on the “Married under 65,” followed by “High ($133,900)” income and the calculator spit out “Pre TCJA at $36,925 and Post TCJA Law at $35,463” for a reduction of $1,462. Not at all close to the $4,500+ I put in my letter to the editor titled “LET ME SHOW YOU HOW TAX REFORM WILL PUT MONEY IN YOUR POCKET.” That got me to dig deeper and below the “Select a Scenario” there is a “CREATE YOUR OWN SCENARIO,” which lets you plug in your actual income and deductions from last year. So, I did that and it came up with the following: “Pre TCJA at $48,786 and Post TCJA Law at $45,786” for a reduction of $3,000. Still not the $4,500+ that I had calculated. What completely blew me away is that the $48,786 the calculator provided for what I was supposed to pay in taxes last year was almost $21,000 more than I ACTUALLY paid in federal income taxes last year. Let me say that again for impact. The TPC calculator said I should have paid almost $21,000 more than I ACTUALLY paid.

 How could that happen? Well I read more deeply into what the $48,786 number included and it included what my wife and I paid in Social Security and Medicare as well as what my employer paid, which came to about $20,000. Adding that to what I did pay in taxes still leaves a discrepancy of $1,000 which tells me the Pre TCJA algorithm is close but not “Turbotax.” The Post TCJA fell short by about $1,800 from what I calculated so there is something missing in the Post TCJA algorithm.

This concerns me deeply and it should concern everyone else that pays taxes. In my opinion the TPC is pulling the wool over the media’s eyes and in turn the American taxpayer is being duped either knowingly or unknowingly by the media. By tossing the Social Security and Medicare tax into the “TAX CALCULATOR,” anyone that uses it will “believe” their taxes are going up because most people do not even know that the Social Security and Medicare taxes are taken out by their employer and what they pay in “income tax” is in addition to those taxes. So, if you do what I did and just plug in one of the “scenarios” it will look like your taxes are going up, not down if you compare it to your last year’s tax return. That is just deceitful.

 Let me debunk the other talking point that the Democrats make which is “it’s a tax break” for the rich. Here is the TCP link that I suspect the Democrats are referring to when they make that ridiculous statement: (http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/feature/analysis-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act). A very “convincing” chart that the rich are getting the bulk of tax reductions, right? Well, this is exactly why I always provide source data when I write to the editor. There is “ZERO” source data provided in that chart. I scratched my head for only a couple of minutes until I figured out that this is exactly what the chart would look like if all the “deduction limits” in the TCJA were ignored. The last letter I wrote to the editor, “ANTI-TRUMP HYSTERIA REMINDS ME OF A CRUCIFIXION 2,000 YEARS AGO,” (Not my title) focused exclusively on how the rich are NOT going to benefit from the TCJA because of the “deduction limits.” The TCP couldn’t possibly cover all of the possible combination of SALT (state and local taxes) limits so I’m convinced they just ignored them. Again, that is completely false. I would suspect that less than 2 percent of the people that make over $500,000 use the standard deduction of $12,600 for a married couple.

 So here is my question to you, the taxpayer. If the media spreads a fake story and don’t know it, are they lying? I realize journalists are not math majors but if they don’t understand the math they should consult people who do. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have said repeatedly that the TCJA will save the average tax payer about $1,182 in income taxes next year. By my calculations that is a little low. Yet the media keeps pushing the opposite. It is absolutely shameful. Please, I ask everyone who pays taxes to pull out your last years’ tax return and go to this website and do the math: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act_of_2017). I would even be willing to sit down with people who need help. The editor of the Laconia Daily Sun has my email address so if there is any interest they can forward any requests to me. If there is enough interest I will set up a time and place and email people back. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

Bruce Jenket

Moultonborough