February 27, 2001 11:45 AM | | Bookmark and Share

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The tax cut plan advocated by President George W. Bush would target most of its benefits to the wealthiest taxpayers if fully enacted in 2001, according to an analysis of the plan released today by Citizens for Tax Justice. (Previous CTJ analyses measured the impact of the Bush plan at 1999 levels.) The analysis shows that more than sixty percent of Bush’s proposed tax cuts would go to the best-off 10 percent of Americans.

According to the analysis:

  • Taxpayers in the lowest 60 percent of the income scale would get only 12.7 percent of Bush’s tax cuts. Their average annual tax reduction would be $256.
  • The bottom 20 percent of taxpayers would see an average tax cut of $47 a year.
  • In contrast, the best-off 10 percent of all taxpayers would get 60.3 percent of Bush’s proposed tax cuts, and an average tax cut of $7,300 a year.
  • The wealthiest one percent of all taxpayers would get an average tax reduction of $54,480 a year–45 percent of the total tax cut.

The income tax cuts under the Bush plan would affect different demographic groups in substantially different ways, with larger average tax cuts going to married couples filing jointly and to families with children. In particular:

  • Married couples filing jointly, with a median 2001 income of $60,200, would receive an average income tax cut of $1,095 under the Bush plan. Unmarried taxpayers, with a median 2001 income of $22,800, would receive an average of $279.
  • Families with children, with a median 2001 income of $45,600, would receive an average income tax cut of $1,114. Taxpayers without children, with a median 2001 income of $30,000, would receive an average tax cut of $294.
  • Single parents, with a median income of $22,600, would receive an average of $326 under the Bush plan’s income tax provisions. Married non-elderly couples without children, with a median income of $63,900, would receive an average of $898.

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