This follows through on the commitment the committee made in the tax-plan framework it put together with the White House and the Senate Finance Committee that said their reformed tax code would be "at least as progressive as the existing tax code." The bill also repeals the personal exemption—currently $4,050 per person—that tax filers can currently deduct for themselves, a spouse and dependents, including children. Additionally, the bill repeals the deduction people can currently take for the state and local income or sales taxes they pay. It does not repeal the deduction for mortgage interest or state and local property taxes. Under current tax law, for example, a married couple who has four children would be able to reduce their taxable income by $24,300 using personal exemptions. They would also be able to reduce their taxable income by the amount of state income or sales tax they paid and also by the mortgage interest they paid as well as the local property taxes they paid. Under the Republican bill, a married couple with four children who itemized would still be able to deduct their mortgage interest and property taxes, but not the $24,300 in personal deductions and not the state income or sales taxes they paid. If they do not itemize (and thus do not claim a deduction for mortgage interest or property taxes), the Republican bill gives them a larger standard deduction ($24,000) than they would get under current law ($12,700). The bill also increased the child tax credit from $1,000 to $1,600 that applies to children 16 and under. It also creates a $300 credit for dependents who are not children. These credits would phase out for married couples filing jointly at $230,000 in income and for single filers at $115,000. The 39.6 percent tax bracket in the Republican bill would kick in for individual filers with incomes over $500,000 and for married couples filing jointly with incomes of $1,000,000 or more. Under current tax law, there are seven federal income tax rates: 10 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent, 35 percent, and 39.6 percent. The Republican bill would create four explicit new tax rates and another “effective” rate that would tax lower income people 0 percent of their income. The four explicit rates in the Republican plan are: 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent.
Here is how the official summary of the Republican bill explains the income levels to which these rates will apply: