In the past three weeks the House of Representatives and the Senate have each passed separate versions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Currently, a conference committee is resolving the differences, the bill is likely to pass by the end of 2017.

People in high school working part time jobs and are being paid minimum wage will have a two percent rise in their taxes. The taxes will go from 10 percent to 12 percent. This means that they will receive less money in their paychecks if the bill passes.

Ryan Bekanon, junior, said, “From what I heard about the new tax bill, it sounds like Trump is being selfish, like always. I have a part time job and I already get paid horribly, I do not want to get even less money due to taxes.”

According to the New York Times, 72% of families making $40,000-$50,000 will see a tax cut in the next year, but by 2027, only 9% of the families in this income bracket will continue to enjoy these tax cuts.

The most discussed feature of this proposed reform is lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. The Republicans argue that a lower tax rate will encourage companies to move to America. A majority of economists say there is no evidence that a lower corporate tax rate will lure companies back to the US, or to spur American companies to increase job creation.

The deficit is likely to go up one trillion dollars from these tax cuts. Michael Egan, senior, said, “I think it is bad that the deficit will go up so much. There is going to be bad effects caused by the increased deficit. Lowering the corporate tax by 15 percent is too much.”

Caroline Albers, senior, said, “I am not saying taxes should be raised so people who do not make enough money have to pay more, but the rich in our country are the only ones who can compensate for the lost money in our deficit so they should pay up.”

The proposals also reduces the current five income brackets down to three, simplifying the tax code. The tax rate in four of the five brackets is either lowered or stays the same, while one bracket increases two percent.  

This tax decrease may only last for four years as these tax cuts are designed to expire under the terms of the bills just in time for when the President will be out of office.

Standard deductions are proposed to be doubled, reducing the incentive to itemized deductions. Giving USA says that reducing the incentive to itemize deductions will result in a reduction of charitable donations by $12-13 Billion dollars annually. The only people for who will continue to benifit from itemize deductions will be the very wealthy.