Did Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act confer greater benefits on rich Americans?
Yes
The Tax Policy Center found that households whose earnings are in the top one percent would receive an average tax cut of $61,090 by 2025 while the bottom 60% of American households would receive an average tax cut of less than $500. This represents a 2.9 percent increase in after-tax income for the top one percent, compared to a 0.4 percent increase in after-tax income for the bottom quintile of Americans.
This disproportionate effect also holds for the second quintile (which received a 0.9 percent increase in after-tax income from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) and the middle quintile (which received a 1.3 percent increase in after-tax income from the TCJA).
The TCJA also included significant tax cuts for corporations. However, research by both the Congressional Research Service and the nonpartisan Brookings Institute has found few of those gains trickled down to workers’ wages.
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