The media do not bother to think thru what the outline says

Reader comment on: Larry Lindsey on JFK, Conservative

Submitted by Lyle (United States), Oct 13, 2017 07:11

1 They complain about the abolition of the AMT, yet the plan abolishes the two biggest reasons folks end up in the AMT system, the state and local tax deduction, and Exemptions. I contend that if you take those two away the number of folks affected by the AMT would hardly justify the cost of administrating it.

Second they don't work out the consequences of the increased child tax credit discussed. There is discussion of $1000 increase in this. This is the equivalent of a 8333 exemption in the 12% bracket and 4000 in the 25% bracket (and assuming it phases out nothing in the 35% bracket). So for folks in the 25% bracket it is essentially a wash against the current exemption, and a big win for folks in the 12% bracket. Taking those numbers and including the current 1000 child tax credit, This means that a family of 4 (including the 24k standard deduction) would need 56k in income in the 12% bracket to pay any income tax and 40k in the 25% bracket. But the reporters appear to be allergic to the simple issue of figuring out the effect of the tax credits.

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