Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said that ‘by far the majority’ of middle class taxpayers will see a break under proposed reforms, but stopped short of saying all would.
Mnuchin pointed out Sunday that the complexity of the tax code makes predicting every scenario impossible, adding that Republicans in the House and Senate want to simplify the code with proposed legislation.
‘For most people – and, again, it may not be 100 percent, but by far the majority – both the House and Senate version provide middle-income tax relief,’ Mnuchin said on CNN.
‘What’s so complicated in our tax situation today is that everybody has a different situation, takes advantage of different parts of the code, it’s very complicated. So by simplifying the code, we’re putting everybody on a level playing field,’ he said.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said that ‘by far the majority’ of middle class taxpayers will see a break under proposed reforms, but stopped short of saying all would
Mnuchin said he hoped that House and Senate versions of the bill could pass, go through reconciliation, and be ready to be signed into law by the end of December.
A core component of the proposed reforms is a reduction of the corporate tax rate to 20 per cent from 35 per cent, but questions have lingered over the impact on middle class households.
Though both the House and Senate bills would lower marginal income tax rates, both contain proposals to eliminate certain deductions.
The Senate bill would eliminate a taxpayer’s ability to deduct state income taxes and local property taxes.
McConnell (left with Orrin Hatch and Steven Mnuchin) noted that it isn’t possible to guarantee that ‘no one’ sees a tax increase
The House bill limits deductibility of mortgage interest to the first $500,000 of a loan, riling the real estate and housing industries, and eliminates a deduction for medical expenses that’s often taken by families facing crippling nursing home costs.
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stirred concerns when he admitted that it wasn’t possible to guarantee that ‘no one sees a tax increase’.
He admitted he ‘misspoke’ when he said that ‘nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase’.
Mnuchin said that lawmakers would ‘fine tune’ the bills over the next several weeks, and that a tax hike for the middle class is not President Donald Trump’s goal.