Harris proposes an extension of the child tax allowance and housing benefit. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris unveiled her economic plan on Friday, addressing the costs of housing, food and raising children, including expanding the child tax credit (raising it to $6,000 for newborns). Her campaign has not yet released details on how the plan will be funded or what Harris will do with expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).
Trump’s tariffs would increase taxes on private households and slow imports. The TPC’s latest estimates are based on its modeling of tariffs proposed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Trump’s proposed global tariffs of 10 percent and 60 percent on Chinese goods would reduce average U.S. household net income by about $1,800, or 1.8 percent, in 2025 and reduce imports into the U.S. by about $5.5 trillion, or 15 percent, from 2025 to 2034. The TPC also modeled the tariffs imposed by President Joe Biden in May, finding that the more modest and targeted levies would have very little impact on federal revenues or household incomes.
NBER report: TCJA reduced charitable giving by $16 billion per year. A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds that the TCJA reduced incentives for charitable giving for about 20 percent of taxpayers by nearly doubling the standard deduction.
There is more to learn about the tax treatment of Asian American families. Bill Gale and Julie Gnany of the TPC used new data to find that Asian American households in the top 20 percent of the income distribution pay a higher average individual tax rate than white households. While a large portion of the Asian American population is in the top 20 percent of the distribution, a significant portion is also in the bottom 20 to 40 percent of the distribution. Gale and Gnany add that researchers need more data to conduct more in-depth analyses.
How much do fines and fees affect the well-being of families? A new research report by Aravind Boddupalli of TPC and Susan Nembhard of the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center shows how fines and fees can further burden families already suffering from financial instability and widen income and racial disparities.
Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (PTCs) are expected to help more than 7 million people afford health insurance by 2025 and reduce the number of uninsured people by 4 million. Jessica Banthin, Michael Simpson and Mohammed Akel of the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center estimate coverage for people under 65 in 2025 to gauge the impact of the PTCs. Congress expanded the PTCs in March 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act and extended them from 2022 to 2025 in the Inflation Reduction Act. Congress must soon decide whether to extend the expanded PTCs again, make them permanent or let them expire.
Is government “too big”? Is that the right question? Gene Steuerle of the TPC argues that the perpetual debate over the right size of government is misplaced, especially when it focuses on deficit-inducing spending increases or tax cuts. Instead, he says, “modern governance requires, above all, the reallocation of resources – especially those made possible by economic growth – to meet the opportunities, needs and democratic desires of voters today and tomorrow.”
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