Letter: Tax cuts provided help for middle class

The Sept. 5 Daily Herald contained two letters to the editor that claim the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) "benefited large corporations and wealthy Americans," was "heavily weighted toward the rich and corporations," and "was blatantly unfair to poor and middle-class Americans."

I am an enrolled agent who has worked in the tax field for 40 years. As a result, I am especially bothered by inaccuracies with regard to tax matters. Let me set the record straight.

Data published by the Internal Revenue Service clearly shows that the biggest beneficiaries of the TCJA were working and middle-income filers, not the top 1%. This data shows that filers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $15,000 to $50,000 received an average tax cut of 16% to 26% in 2018, (the first year the TCJA went into effect). Filers who earned $50,000 to $100,000 received an income-tax cut of about 15% to 17% and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 received a tax break of around 11% to 13%.

By contrast, there was no income group with an AGI of at least $500,000 that received an average tax cut exceeding 9% and the average tax cut for brackets starting at $1 million was less than 6%. This data is consistent with what I observed preparing tax returns for my clients after the TCJA took effect.

In addition, this IRS data shows that in 2018 compared to 2017, the tax burden increased on every income bracket with filers earning $200,000 or more and every income bracket with a top limit lower than $200,000 paid a smaller%age of the total personal tax revenue collected. Clearly, the TCJA made our tax code more progressive.

Facts matter, whether you like them or not.

Stephen W. DeFilippis

Wayne