Study shows Biden aiming tax hikes at middle class

President Joe Biden delivers his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2021. (Video screenshot)

A recent report from WND revealed the coming disaster that will face middle class families across America because of Joe Biden’s “middle-class death tax.”

It would penalize people of modest resources, such as a widow with nothing but a home to pass on to her children, according to a analysis from the Wall Street Journal. Reports confirmed, however, that Biden’s strategy would leave his own fortune, estimated by some at $8 million, untouched.

But that’s not the only way that middle to lower income individuals will pay more taxes under Biden’s plans to makes changes, even though on the campaign trail he vowed, “Joe Biden will not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000, period.”

Fox Business is reporting that Joe Biden is insisting that up to about 60% of Americans could pay more taxes.

Specifically, the report said the documentation from the Tax Policy Center shows, “Three-quarters of households earning between $75,000 and $100,000 annually would face pay an additional $440 per year in taxes under Biden’s tax hikes … At the same time, about 69% of those earning between $100,000 and $200,000 would see their tax bill rise by $830 on average, while 83.7% of those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 would see an increase of $2,040 on average.”

The report explained Biden wants “a slew of tax hikes, including raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, nearly doubling the capital gains tax rate to 39.6% from 21%, restoring the top individual income tax rate to 39.6% from 37% and taxing capital gains at death.”

The new top tax rate would directly aim at singles with taxable income of more than $452,700 and married couples with joint taxable income of $509,300. Heads of households earning more than $481,000 and married individuals filing separate tax returns with income over $254,650 would also pay the higher rate,” the report said.

The report explained, “while workers making $75,000 annually would not pay a higher individual income tax rate under Biden’s proposal, they would see a share of their income shrink due to lower investment earnings and compensation – a byproduct of the higher corporate tax rate, according to the Tax Policy Center analysis.”

Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the think tank, confirmed, “Including corporate tax increases, most households would pay more in 2022. About three-quarters of middle-income households would face a tax increase averaging about $300. But nearly all would be a result of those higher corporate taxes.”

The report also noted some taxpayers would be helped from the new expanded child tax credit and the earned income tax credit.

According to the Washington Examiner’s report on the same study, it reveals “the majority would see at least some increased taxes.”

WND’s report explained the redefinition of death taxes was significant.

“The American Families Plan as proposed would impose a new death tax that would punish middle class individuals who chose to invest in America and leave something for their children rather than spend every dollar,” Hank Adler, associate professor at Chapman University and co-author of the study, explained.

“The plan does not move the goal posts, it totally changes the rules of the game.”

Currently, capital gains tax generally is imposed on profits when assets are sold. Only estates worth more than $11.7 million are taxed on “unrealized gains,” meaning the increase in value of assets, even if they are not sold.

But Biden wants to close what he calls the “trust fund loophold,” reducing the threshold to $1 million.

But the analysis by Adler and California attorney Madison Spach shows how the heirs of a young widow who bought a home for $250,000 decades ago could be hit with a massive tax bill upon her death. In contrast, the heirs of the Bidens, who own two homes, would pay nothing.

If the widow’s house were now worth $2.5 million, under the current law there would be no capital gains tax on the estate. But Biden wants a tax on the increase in value, less an exemption of $1.25 million. At a tax rate of 40.8% on the remaining $1 million, the tax bill would be $408,000.

But for the Bidens, who along with their two homes have annuities and life insurance policies, the total appreciation on their homes would be less than the couples’ exemption of $2.5 million. Their estate would pay nothing.

“Scenarios in which the new death tax would significantly reduce, nearly eliminate or even totally eliminate the net worth of decedents who invested and held real estate for decades wouldn’t be uncommon,” the authors of the study write.

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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.

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