Will the promises be kept?
Nov 16, 2017, 6:46 AM | Updated: 8:00 am
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
As you’ve heard, a whole new tax law is coming.
But will the reality match the promises? One promise was that the tax cuts would go to the middle class, not the wealthy.
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But Bloomberg reported that households earning upwards of $1 million a year stand to see an average cut of $58,000. Far more than anyone in the middle class would get.
Remain calm. I contacted my long-time tax whisperer, CPA Don DeSantis, who just happened to be attending a tax conference, where he’s been sitting in on those always-captivating CPA seminars. He says the millionaire payoff is likely to change. Why?
“Because I don’t think that anybody wants to end up with a tax bill that says, well you’re going to get a $58,000 cut but you folks over here are going to get a $2,000 cut.”
The president also promised it would help families. And I suppose this provision would qualify: “For divorce decrees starting — I think — 2018 or afterward, no deduction for alimony payments.”
It might keep a few marriages together.
But, of course, what we’re all really looking forward to is the post-card simplicity, which will streamline the rules, strip away complex tax breaks, and force accountants like Don into early retirement. Although for some reason when I mentioned that to Don he started chuckling.
“Someone made the joke here that if even half of this comes about … it’s the accountant’s full employment act.”
And people said this wouldn’t create jobs!