Misleading: Joe Biden will repeal Trump's tax cuts which will lead to increased taxes for the middle class.

By: Ranjini K
November 2 2020

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Joe Biden only wants to repeal parts of the 2017 law. The bulk of Biden's proposed tax increases would impact top earners.Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has previously stated that he would not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. If elected, he plans to roll back President Trump’s tax cuts on households making above the $400,000 threshold and on corporations. Trump’s tax law reduced the income tax on the wealthiest Americans from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. Washington Post reported that Trump and Republicans in Congress also enacted the most significant corporate tax cut in U.S. history by slashing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent in 2017. If elected president, Biden has vowed to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. While Joe Biden said that under his tax plan, taxes would not be raised for people earning less than $400,000, CNBC reported that studies from the Tax Policy Center and the Tax Foundation show that his plan could raise middle-class taxes slightly. As workers usually end up paying some portion of higher corporate taxes, they suggest that middle-class taxpayers could see a tax increase of between $180 and $200 a year. However, the Tax Policy Center estimates that the top 1 percent of the wealthiest households would pay three-quarters of the tax increases. The Tax Foundation found that Biden’s plan could also reduce long-run economic growth by 1.51 percent and eliminate about 585,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Biden’s tax plan will lead to the wealthiest 1 percent bearing much of the tax burden, which indirectly affects the increase in corporate tax of middle-class taxpayers. CNBC reported that an analysis released by the Tax Policy Center in Oct 2020 revealed that top earners would see a steep increase. Those in the top 1%, who earn more than $788,000, would see an average tax increase of $266,000, while the super earners — or those in the top 0.1% — would see an average tax hike of $1.6 million. As far as repealing Trump's tax overhaul laws are concerned, Biden's campaign has clarified that they only want to repeal parts of the law and focus those changes on corporations and households making more than $400,000. The analysis also found that at least in the early years of the tax plan, the impacts of the corporate tax increase would be more than offset by tax credits and deductions aimed at middle- and lower-income earners.