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By Matthew Reichbach 4/14/10
Tomorrow is the deadline to file federal income taxes and taxes are on the minds of many Americans. A recent national poll shows that six-in-ten Americans expect their taxes to go up. Also comes the news of a study that found that 99 percent New Mexicans benefited from tax cuts related to the stimulus package.
The Gallup poll found that 74 percent of Republicans believed that their taxes would go up over the next 12 months while 49 percent of Democrats believed their taxes would be raised.
Just four percent of all Americans thought that their taxes would be lowered.
“President Obama cut federal income taxes for low- and middle-income Americans in the economic stimulus plan, and is looking to extend the Bush-era tax cuts on middle-income families in his 2011 budget,” Gallup wrote in discussing the poll. “Still, a majority of people in low- and middle-income households expect their taxes to be raised over the next 12 months.”
Gallup offered one possible reason for the widespread belief that taxes would go up. “Americans may perceive that the federal government will need to raise taxes to pay for its greater spending and rising deficits since Obama took office, including the recently passed healthcare legislation, with its price tag of just under $1 trillion.”
The head of the Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan organization that makes budget estimates on legislation in front of Congress, still believes that the health care reform bill will cut the federal deficit. However, a USA Today/Gallup poll from late last month found that most believed it would increase the federal deficit.
The study by the DC-based public policy organization Citizens for Tax Justice examined the tax breaks in legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama. CTJ found that the average tax benefit from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or the federal stimulus package, was a cut of $1,012.
“The 2009 federal income taxes that come due on April 15 have been cut for nearly all working Americans, including Americans at all income levels, by the Recovery Act signed by President Obama last year,” the report states. “No legislation enacted during the Obama administration increased taxes for 2009.”