How are the Benefits of the Bush Tax Plan Distributed?
The package of tax cuts President Bush has proposed are heavily skewed toward those at the top of the income spectrum. The broad middle class would receive substantially less relief. • The one percent of the population with the highest incomes would receive between 36 percent and 43 percent of the tax cut, depending on the calculation used. The bottom 80 percent of the population would receive 29 percent of the tax cut. • The Bush plan would deliver an average tax reduction of at least $39,000 to the top one percent of the population (in 1999 dollars). The Administration claims the typical family of four would receive $1,600 when the plan is fully in effect. The Administration’s family is hardly typical. When the income tax cuts take full effect in 2006, Citizens for Tax Justice has found that 85 percent of households would receive a tax cut of less than $1,600 in that year.(1) • The Treasury Department has reported that the top one percent of the population pays 20 percent of all fede
