Who Would Benefit From the GOP’s Tax Bill? HENRYs
The legislation is very good for the group known as high earners, not rich yet.
Under the tax bill, 20% of the benefits would go to those in the top 1% of the income distribution.
Photographer: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
In the weeks before and after the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017, Democrats hammered home the talking point that the top 1% of earners would receive 83% of the tax cuts. This was, strictly speaking, true — but not until 2027, after the bill’s provisions related to individual income taxes had expired, leaving only corporate tax cuts that didn’t have expiration dates. Before then, the top 1% received about a quarter of the total cuts.
Now Republicans in Congress are trying to make the soon-to-expire elements of the 2017 tax bill permanent while adding a bunch of new goodies, some of them temporary. As one might imagine, the implications for how the benefits would be distributed are complicated.