Let’s try to cut through all the tax plan rhetoric and crunch some numbers:

A single person making the federal minimum wage ($7.25 an hour), taking the standard deduction, will see taxes decrease by 34.6 percent.

A couple (no children) who both make minimum wage and take the standard deduction also will see a 34.6 percent tax decrease.

What about those employees who will be making $15 an hour in the near future? The same single person gets a 21.3 percent decrease, and the same couple will get a 21.3 percent decrease in their taxes in 2018. What about the single person whose adjusted income exceeds $400,000? They will get a 0.5 percent decrease.

For the single person making $15 an hour, that would be about $564, and for the “fat cat,” at $400,000 a year, that savings would be $547. I am missing the provision that is the giveaway to the rich – or is $400,000 per year now considered middle class?

I am not a tax professional, but I do my own taxes every year. While I do not look forward to doing them this year, I am very excited about next year. I am retired and I expect this tax plan to help me over the coming years.

For everyone who likes to tout that the tax breaks will expire in 10 years, I would love to see the politician who has the guts to raise everyone’s taxes rather than extend the existing tax bill. Good luck with that.

Jim Stevens

Topsham

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