Right now the public hates, hates, hates the tax bill. It’s less popular than any major piece of legislation of the past several decades, less popular even than tax hikes passed under Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. Only about a third of Americans view it favorably, based on an average of nine polls this month.
.. while it’s true that by 2027, a majority of households will see their tax liabilities increase relative to current law, most people’s taxes will indeed fall in the near term.
.. Many will start receiving those tax cuts as early as February, when lower paycheck withholding kicks in. Just in time for the 2018 midterms!
..
The 2009 Recovery Act — the economic stimulus passed under President Barack Obama, in response to the Great Recession — cut taxes for 96 percent of households, according the Tax Policy Center. Incidentally, it also gave bigger benefits to families in the middle (and also bottom) of the income distribution than the Trump tax law will next year.
And yet, despite the magnitude and near-universality of those Recovery Act tax cuts, virtually no one noticed them.
..
A year later, just 12 percent of Americans knew that Obama had cut taxes for most people...
And yet in 2004, just 19 percent said that Bush had reduced their taxes...
To the extent they care about the system, they’re primarily mad that others are shirking this duty.
- .. The thing that bothers Americans most about the tax system is “the feeling that some corporations don’t pay their fair share,” according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
- This was followed by the feeling that “some wealthy people are not paying their fair share.”
- Next, tax-code complexity.
- .. Then, in fourth place, was the amount they personally pay in taxes.
.. “Newspapers are going to be full of stories about people creatively minimizing their taxes,” says tax historian Joseph Thorndike.