Seen and Unseen Tax Changes in Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill

President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill has proven to be one of the most contentious bills in recent memory. At the heart of the debate is who the OBBB benefits. While the left claims the bill is simply a tax break for the rich, the right claims our middle class will benefit the most.

Knowing that each side will stick to their mainstream media talking points, a long couple of weeks was needed to read the bill, take notes, cross-reference, and review extensive material. (After devoting two weeks to the project, it is now seen why most avoid this tedious approach.)

Bills are written in legalese. And while most of us —including myself — are far from being tax, economic or legal experts, the OBBB does reinforce why we are a democratic republic/representative democracy and not a straight democracy.

Focusing on tax sections and where tax breaks were mentioned, seeing which income group benefited most, the OBBB seemed to benefit one group. But with a better understanding of past legislation, it also seemed to benefit another. In other words, with ample research, there are both seen and unseen benefits.

Whenever income was mentioned in the OBBB, it read as a middle-class tax break with penalties for the wealthy. For example, Section 70103 permanently ends the old personal exemptions. Before 2018, taxpayers could deduct around $4,000 for their qualifying family members. Trump’s 2017 tax law took those deductions away but replaced them with higher standard deductions and larger child tax credits to help the middle class. The OBBB makes these changes permanent.

There is an exemption for those over 65 who can still claim a personal deduction of $6,000; however, taxpayers making more than $75,000 will start to receive smaller deductions. The more one makes, the less they can deduct.

In Section 70105, the OBBB increases the Qualified Business Income deduction from $50,000 to $75,000, meaning more small business owners and self-employed taxpayers will qualify for this tax break.

Section 70111, for taxpayers who itemize their deductions, the OBBB limits how much those deductions reduce taxes if the taxpayer’s income is high.

Section 70120 allows more deductions for state and local taxes, but the amount reduces with the more money you one makes.

Section 70202, a big promise for Trump, makes overtime pay tax deductible, yet the deduction starts phasing out if the income is over $150,000.

Section 70203 allows taxpayers to deduct interest payments on new cars, yet the deduction is reduced if the taxpayer earns more than $100,000 per year.

Section 70601 is designed to prevent wealthy individuals from using large business losses to avoid paying taxes.

Section 70603 closes a loophole that allowed large corporations avoid limits on tax deductions for high executive pay by spreading salaries across related companies in a corporate group.

Finally, Section 73001 disallows anyone making more than $1 million dollars per year to receive unemployment benefits.
Basically, every time a tax break is mentioned, there seemed to be an income cap.

There are two major problems with reading a bill of this magnitude.
First, at nearly 900 pages, it’s just too long. It is believed that bills should be broken down into smaller, more accessible measures to allow legislators to be able to disagree with some portions without killing the entire deal.

Second, to understand this bill, one must know all the ins and outs of the 2017 tax bill. In several sections, the bill simply referenced or reverted things back to the 2017 tax bill without giving the details of the old bill. The only way to understand the full details of OBBB is to have a copy of the 2017 bill and read them side by side and line by line. Doing so is where many of the tax breaks for the wealthy were created, which OBBB simply reinstated, like Pass‑Through QBI Deduction, high Corporate Tax Rate and higher Estate/Gift Tax.

Honestly, it’s brilliant how calculated and strategic our Founders were to create a democratic republic as our frame of government because a straight democracy simply would not work here and now. Not everyone has two weeks to read an entire bill. And even then, there were plenty of parts where the bill was utterly confusing.

So, does this bill benefit the rich or our middle class? The answer seems to be yes to both. Basically, the OBBB carried over major tax cuts on income, businesses and estates from the 2017 bill which help the wealthy while new portions created several tax breaks for our middle class.

James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at HistoricallySpeaking1776@gmail.com.