As a conservative-led Congress inches its way forward toward extending the tax cuts, a new PragerU video explains the widespread benefits of tax cuts to a generation that has been hoodwinked to believe that they only benefit the rich.
In the timely video “Do Tax Cuts Work?” Independent Women partnered with PragerU to debunk myths about tax cuts and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, specifically.
In answer to this basic question, we explained:
The average tax cut for working and middle-income taxpayers ranged from $1,500 to $3,000.
The bottom half of earners saw the largest reduction in the amount of taxes they paid — over 16%.
Conclusion: Virtually everyone’s taxes went down. Blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, men, women, people with a college degree, and people without one.
We also tackle the criticism that corporate tax cuts do not help workers:
First, you should be aware that corporations don’t actually pay these taxes. We—the consumers—do. Corporations build them into the price of the goods and services we buy.
And they did pass tax cuts on to their employees.
In the year after the tax cuts took effect, median household income rose by $5,000, and wages grew 4.9%.
With just five minutes and so much to cover, we didn’t get into the impact of the tax cuts on small businesses.
However, our IW Features series, Earn More, Pay Less, shares the stories of small business owners who benefitted from the tax cuts and passed those tax savings onto their workers or expanded their businesses.
Take Iowan trucking business owner Lana Pol as an example. Following the enactment of the TCJA, her company purchased more trucks and drivers. It expanded with new warehouse space as well.
Americans are slowly awakening to the prospect of a massive tax increase (22% for the average taxpayer) if provisions of the TCJA are allowed to expire.
Our recent polling finds that 78% of women, 78% of Independents, 72% of 18- to 34-year-olds, and 79% of all voters say that Congress should extend the 2017 tax cuts so that individual income taxes don’t rise beginning in January 2026. This is a bipartisan 80-20 issue.
To learn more, visit iwf.org/taxcuts.