"Simplifying" the tax code by cutting brackets has always been a lie and a swindle

[JHB]

The Trump/Heritage Foundation Project 2025 is a wish list of Conservative/Right-Wing hobby horses, one of them being "simplifying" the tax code by cutting the number of brackets down to two: 15% and 30%.

This is a repeat of the tax cuts in Reagan's 2nd term, with the brackets then being 15% and 28%, with the dividing line being roughly at the median income at the time (in effect 1988-1990). All it got us was a ballooning deficit and the last gasp of actual Republican fiscal responsibility when GHW Bush went back on his "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge and signed a feeble improvement by adding one -- count 'em, ONE -- additional bracket at the high end. Bill Clinton signed a reform adding two more. It was still inadequate and didn't go anywhere near really high incomes, but it proved doomsaying Republicans wrong by putting us into budgetary surplus.

The argument for "simplifying" the tax code by cutting brackets was always a lie. All the complicated parts (what's deductible, what type of income is this, can I take these credits, etc.) come before calculating the bill. Calculating what is owed is just math, no matter the number of brackets. It can be tedious, but it's already simple. And that was before these little things called "computers" that, y'know, compute numbers fast.

The highest number of brackets we had was more than a hundred years ago (1919-1921) when there were 56. Let me repeat that: FIFTY-SIX! Fifty six in an age of paper calculations and mechanical adding machines. Today we can make tee shirts with enough computing power to handle the bracket math.

Through most of the post-WW2 era, there were 24. It's been over 10 years since I did some adjusting for inflation, but to take good old 1955 as an example, two-thirds only affected taxable income above the equivalent of $250,000 (in 2013 dollars). Eleven of those only affected taxable income above the equivalent of half a million dollars. The top bracket affected taxable income over the equivalent of a little under $4 million.

It is now and always has been about cutting taxes for the top and sticking everyone else with the bills.

Related discussion: Trump's Project 2025 will bring large middle class tax increase
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219165937

[Fichefinder]

1. Here's a great bracket: No tax for the first $100,000

After that, it's a steep climb. Tax the rich until they can't afford to buy a politician.

[TheFarseer]

2. Absolutely

Once you determine your income, the computer calculates the tax you owe. Even in the old days, all you had to do was find your income on the table and it told you what you owe. You don’t and never did have to add or multiply anything because of tax brackets.