If you read the headlines, the spoils of the Republican tax plan will disproportionately benefit the wealthy. It’s been called a “tax cut for the rich,” “a Christmas gift for the wealthy” and more. And that’s true: Any back-of-the-envelope math shows that in both dollar terms and in percentage terms, the largest tax cuts clearly benefit the rich.
And yet virtually every private conversation taking place on Wall Street and in corporate America among the wealthy these days seemingly comes to a different conclusion. Many complain bitterly that the new tax code will have them paying more, not less, in taxes. Accountants’ phones are ringing off the hook from their wealthy clients scrambling to understand how much bigger their bill will be and what steps can be taken to minimize their ballooning payment. Huh?
That’s some disconnect
You’re probably asking how a tax plan that seems riddled with loopholes to benefit those who are well off — and the Trump family — can be raising the tax bill of the wealthy when we’ve been told the opposite.
Here’s the nuance: The tax bill soaks some of rich Americans — but it does not soak the richest.
It is the “pretty rich” right below that level that may get hit: the W2 employee making several hundred thousand dollars to millions of dollars a year with high state and local taxes that will not be fully deductible may see a higher tax bill. So will the chief executives of many large publicly traded companies who often itemize large, unreimbursed business expenses, which will no longer be allowed. Some executives are already calculating that they will be paying additional seven-figure sums in taxes.