May 13, 2003 04:21 PM | Permalink |
The tax bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee on May 8 and scheduled for Senate debate this week would borrow $350 billion over the upcoming decade to finance still more tax reductions. More than half of the tax cuts would go to the best-off 10 percent.
A computer analysis of the Finance Committee plan by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that over the bill’s first four years:
- More than fifty percent of the total tax cuts would go to the best-off 10 percent of all taxpayers.
- In contrast, the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers would get only 11.9 percent of the tax cuts, averaging about $100 a year over the next four years.
- The average tax reduction for the richest one percent over the next four years would total $41,117. This tiny but wealthy group would enjoy almost a fifth of the tax cuts over the four years.