December 14,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, House and Senate GOP leaders cut a deal Wednesday on a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s tax laws, paving the way for final votes next week to slash taxes for businesses and give many Americans modest tax cuts starting next year. While some deduction were eliminated or curtailed , the standard deduction was doubled .
Here is what we know so far , the agreement would set the top individual rate at 37 percent, down from today’s 39.6 percent. The corporate rate would come down to 21% down from the highest in the world 35 % and would take effect in 2018.The deal is also expected to eliminate the alternative minimum tax for corporations.
House and Senate negotiators finally agreed to expand the deduction for state and local taxes and to allow individuals to deduct $10,000 in property taxes. A change important to residents in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey ,California and Connecticut, but probably not enough to offset other cuts for certain types of wage earnings and will adversely impact towns like Ridgewood.
Among the other tax breaks, negotiators also agreed to let homeowners retain some of the mortgage interest deduction on the first $750,000 of a new mortgage, down from the current limit of $1 million.
From what we see so far it appears the changes favor entrepreneurs over wage slaves .
