$1.5 Trillion GOP Tax Cut Thread

[Pericles]

They are going to botch this too aren't they?

Don't get your hopes up. I wouldn't be surprised if McConnell and/or Ryan threaten to kick people off committees if they don't vote for this.

That would require them to be competent. Last tax reform in 1986 took a year and a half to pass and was done in a bipartisan manner, but these idiots think they can get it done by Christmas.

[Kingpoleon]

If they would keep the current rates, maybe cutting taxes by 2-3% on those making <$60,000, they would do a lot better. That said, by cutting the corporate tax rates but also eliminating deductions, they could make this revenue neutral.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

House Plan being released today. Details per HuffPost: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-tax-bill_us_59fb289fe4b0b0c7fa387e8f

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[OSR stands with Israel]

I would fully support it if they added this :

Taxing overseas havens

[Torie]

The taxation of tuition remissions for graduate students would make sense if the reason for the remission is that they are performing services, e.g. as teaching assistants, as opposed to it just being a discount ala a scholarship. The amount of tax would be low anyway, if any at all, given that the remission amounts would typically be relatively small.

[Dr. Arch]

The taxation of tuition remissions for graduate students would make sense if the reason for the remission is that they are performing services, e.g. as teaching assistants, as opposed to it just being a discount ala a scholarship. The amount of tax would be low anyway, if any at all, given that the remission amounts would typically be relatively small.

When you are a grad student, seeing, maybe, $18k a year, and paying over $1k in segregated fees and $1k in taxes, you really don't want to see that double or triple. It would make living unsustainable; it's already hard enough as it is.

[MasterJedi]

I would fully support it if they added this :

Taxing overseas havens

That's not going to happen, the GOP right now gets its money from rich people and corporations that love to hide money and not actually pay taxes so you won't see it. Would love to see it though, drag back all that money!

[Pyro]

Something that has surfaced recently:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/opposition-taxation-graduate-student-tuition-waivers-and-remissions

The new tax plan aims to tax graduate students' tuition remissions as income, effectively increasing their tax rates anywhere between 100-1,000% on "income" they never see.

The repercussions would be astronomically destructive for higher education and for the upwards mobility of future generations of professionals in the United States.

More info here: http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_Tax_Reform_Scenarios%281%29.pdf


"Example #2: Jose, a doctoral degree student at a public institution had a $14,500 fellowship and was also credited with $9,500 as a tuition/fee waiver.

Under the current law: In 2012, Jose’s tax liability would have been $8,550 and he would have paid $847.50 in federal income tax.

If tuition waivers are considered as taxable income and LLTC is not available: Jose’s tax liability would increase to $18,050, despite the fact he would still take home the same amount of money, and he would have to pay $2,272.50 in federal income tax, or 16% of his fellowship.

Effectively, Jose’s federal income tax would increase by 168%, or $1,425."

-Council of Graduate Schools

"Why don't Millennials like Capitalism?"

[#gravelgang #lessiglad]

Schools with > $100,000 in assets per student would be taxed on their endowment at 1.4%.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-02/house-bill-is-said-to-tax-university-endowment-income-at-1-4

Apparently, it would exempt "small schools," but the definition of a small school isn't yet released.

[Hindsight was 2020]

So they are just punishing Milenials and blue states.....Yep party of Trump alright

[mvd10]

Meh, not a fan of the student tax, but overall it seems like a decent plan (though it could have been cheaper and beter). But slashing rates and eliminating loopholes is the way to go .

[MasterJedi]

Punishment of education, nothing scares a conservative more than educated people.

[SoLongAtlas]

If they cut subsidies, eliminate more loopholes and cut useless agencies to reduce the debt brought on by the tax cut, I could support this. Otherwise, I don't think I could support it based on the debt it would incur.

[OSR stands with Israel]

So they are just punishing Milenials and blue states.....Yep party of Trump alright

The standard deduction will double,


People who make  90k or more their  rate would be reduced from 25 percent on incomes between 38k-90k down to 12 percent  .

[mvd10]

Punishment of education, nothing scares a conservative right-wing populist more than educated people.

[#gravelgang #lessiglad]

Meh, not a fan of the student tax, but overall it seems like a decent plan (though it could have been cheaper and beter). But slashing rates and eliminating loopholes is the way to go .

they're leavin the biggest loopholes out there for the sugar daddies

The reduced rate on flow throughs is a loophole that any halfway competent tax attorney can drive a truck through.

[Dr. Arch]

Punishment of education, nothing scares a conservative right-wing populist more than educated people.

There's no difference today. "Conservatives" have no power in the party. There are barely any conservatives left, actually.

[muon2]

The taxation of tuition remissions for graduate students would make sense if the reason for the remission is that they are performing services, e.g. as teaching assistants, as opposed to it just being a discount ala a scholarship. The amount of tax would be low anyway, if any at all, given that the remission amounts would typically be relatively small.

Typically new grad students will get a TA to cover tuition with enough extra to provide some additional stipend. It is effectively a way for the universities to cut labor costs, and if the exemption for tuition is removed then universities will probably have to increase wages to make sure their grad students can afford to live near campus. Cost of living for grad school can be a significant factor when deciding where to attend.

A complication would be for senior grad students supported as a research assistant. The money typically comes from external grants and the university gets a significant percentage of the grant as "overhead". A student supported by the grant gets a tuition waiver in return, often as they work towards completing a thesis. In this case the tuition is for research credit hours, not really for any class work, but university policy requires students to be enrolled in something. The credits are also needed so that the student remains as a full-time student, which helps the student financially for things like deferrals on student loans.

[#gravelgang #lessiglad]

I'm not sure if I should post this here or just save time and post in the unpopular opinions / deplorable posts thread, but expanding the child tax credit and not capping the charitable deduction is awful policy.

 The enforcement on qualified (c)(3) vehicles is abysmal and there's a spectacular amount of fraud among wealthy people in charitable deductions.

Not to mention that the population globally is creeping up on a point of maximal saturation and global resources are already strained so subsidizing limitless childbirthing is stupid policy. CTC should have been wrapped up with EITC and capped at 2 children, so there's both an incentive to work and to not overpopulate.

-----

I'm also going to rail against the capping of the mortgage deduction. Economically, we should adjust for local cost of living... A 500k house in San Francisco isn't nearly the same house as in Tulsa, OK and there's little economic justification for any policy that is blind to those differences.

I also must once again point out that only allowing property taxes to be deducted is a recipe for state financing catastrophe. The correct policy would be capping total deduction for state and local income, sales and property taxes at something like 25,000 base, adjusted upward or downward for an area's cost of living.

BLS already maintains COL figures by zip code, so it wouldn't be a heavy lift to incorporate this into the tax code and would promote individual choices for where people live.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Overall I support this tax plan

[rob in cal]

  The fact that the highest rates on upper earners and very high earners will stay pretty high strikes me as a  big step to the center for the plan. 

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Overall I support this tax plan

[SoLongAtlas]

Trump is live now at a WH presser on this and announced that Broadcom will move its HQ back to the US from Singapore. The CEO is standing right behind him (albeit a bit fidgety).

The HQ on its wiki says they are cohqd in San Jose. I am assuming this move will be a single HQ. They are inc out of Singapore, maybe moving inc back to the US.

[Santander]

Punishment of education, nothing scares a conservative more than educated people.

[SoLongAtlas]

CEO just confirmed that they will redomicile in the US.