PROVIDING A HELPING HAND TO MIDDLE-INCOME FAMILIES: President Trump’s tax cuts are providing a boost to middle-income families.
- The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) cut taxes for the middle class and boosted the Child Tax Credit to provide a helping hand to American families.
- The TCJA included $5.5 trillion in gross tax cuts, nearly 60 percent of which goes to families.
- The TCJA will provide more than $2,000 in tax cuts in 2018 for an average family of four with an income of $75,000.
- The TCJA nearly doubled the standard deduction, allowing middle-income families to exempt more of their income from taxes.
- The TCJA doubled the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child and made the credit available to more middle-income families.
- The new law also increases the refundable portion of the credit.
- Families can now use 529 Savings Accounts to pay for qualified elementary and secondary education expenses, helping to increase their options for their children’s education.
- To ensure families get the help they deserve, the TCJA preserved provisions such as the child and dependent care credit, the adoption tax credit, retirement savings tax benefits, and more.
- Families facing costly medical bills benefited from the expanded medical expense deduction.
- At least 100 utility companies across the country announced plans to cut rates in response to the tax cuts.
PUTTING MORE MONEY IN WORKERS’ POCKETS: The TCJA has led to higher wages, increased benefits, big bonuses, and new employment opportunities for workers.
- More than 6 million workers received pay raises, bonuses, or increased retirement contributions thanks to the President’s tax cuts.
- More than 4 million workers received direct bonuses.
- Nearly 200 companies announced wage increases due to the TCJA, including Walmart, the largest private employer in the Nation.
- In addition to keeping more of their hard earned money thanks to the tax cuts, workers are seeing their wages rise.
- Year-over-year nominal wage growth has now been at or above 3 percent for 8 straight months.
- Low-income workers are seeing their wages rise faster than anyone else.
- Businesses are creating more and more jobs, generating record numbers of employment opportunities for workers and driving unemployment down to historic lows.
- More than 3 million jobs have been created since President Trump signed the TCJA into law.
- There were a record high 7.6 million job openings available to workers in November 2018 and openings continue to far exceed the number of job seekers.
- For the first time in recorded history, there have been more job openings than unemployed workers for 12 straight months.
- The unemployment rate has been at or below 4 percent for the past 13 months, the longest such streak in nearly five decades.
- The unemployment rates for Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans all fell to their lowest rates on record.
- The unemployment rate for women dropped to a near 65 year low last year.
LAUNCHING A BUSINESS BOOM: America is open for business again thanks to President Trump’s historic tax cuts.
- The tax cuts have reignited America’s economic engine, generating 3 percent real gross domestic product (GDP) growth through the four quarters of 2018.
- Real GDP grew by 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018, the fastest such growth in a calendar year since 2005.
- The TCJA leveled the playing field for American businesses by lowering the statutory corporate tax rate from one of the highest in the developed world.
- Businesses poured investment back into the United States following the tax cuts, repatriating more than half a trillion dollars held overseas in 2018 alone.
- The TCJA allowed businesses to immediately and fully deduct the cost of new capital investments, enabling them to invest more in their own operations.
- The tax cuts and capital investment deduction have been a boost for America’s manufacturers, leading to record high manufacturer optimism in 2018.
- The TCJA provided much needed tax relief for America’s small businesses by letting certain pass through entities deduct 20 percent of their qualified business income.
- As a result, small business optimism skyrocketed to a record high last year according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.
LIFTING UP FORGOTTEN COMMUNITIES: The TCJA created Opportunity Zones to bring investment and opportunity to communities that have been left behind.
- Opportunity Zones utilize tax incentives to spur investment in low-income communities.
- Those who invest in Opportunity Zones through qualified funds will be able to defer taxation on their capital gains, with the benefits increasing over time.
- This structure will help promote the long-term investments these communities need.
- These incentives are an incredible vehicle to help foster economic revitalization and job growth in struggling communities.
- More than 8,700 communities across the country have been designated as opportunity zones and will see new investment and growth as a result.
- Nearly 35 million Americans live in communities designated as Opportunity Zones.
- These communities have an average poverty rate of over 32 percent and an unemployment rate 1.6 times higher than average.
- Opportunity Zones are anticipated to generate $100 billion in private capital investment.
