John McCain on taxes
Barack Obama on taxes
I'm going to organize this one a little differently than the last one. It just lends itself to this organization, and I think it will facilitate comparisons. There have been shameful half-truths and outright lies spread by one of the campaigns on this topic. Please pay attention to what both the candidates really say about their own plans, not what they say about each other's. I promise that's what I've put here, the candidates' own words about their own plans.
1. Top individual income tax bracket
McCain: keep it at 35% (I thought it was 36%? What do I know though -- I certainly don't pay taxes in the top income bracket!)
Obama: increase it to 39% for any income above $250,000; keep it the same for income up to $250,000 (so if you earn $260,000, you pay 35/36% on the first $250K, then 39% on the additional $10K)
2. Other individual income tax brackets
McCain:
a) for a family with two children, a $125 tax cut, through an increase in the dependent exemption
b) a new tax imposed on your employer-sponsored health benefits (the rate is not specified)
c) a $5,000 tax credit for health care (not sure how the new health benefits tax and health tax credit would interact, whether families would come out paying more or less, due to the fact that the new tax on health benefits is not specified)
Obama:
a) a tax credit of $500 for individuals or $1,000 for couples for working families that earn less than $250,000/year
b) in addition, for families earning less than $75,000/year: a $500 mortgage credit, and a credit of up to $4,000 for college tuition
c) eliminate all income taxes for senior citizens earning less than $50,000/year
d) increase child tax care credit from $5,000 to $6,000
e) expand eligibility for the earned income tax credit
f) $7,000 tax credit for alternative energy vehicles
3. Taxes on capital gains
McCain: keep the tax on dividends and capital gains at 15%
Obama:
a) get rid of the capital gains tax for investors in small businesses
b) keep the current capital gains rate for families earning less than $250,000
c) establish a new capital gains rate of 20% for families earning more than $250,000 (currently it's 15%, but is due to go back up to 20% automatically in 2010 unless Congress changes it)
4. Corporate income taxes
McCain:
a) cut the rate from 35% to 25%.
b) establish a corporate tax credit equal to 10% of wages for money spent on research and development
Obama:
a) repeal tax breaks and loopholes (no further specifics on which) that reward corporations for taking jobs overseas
b) use the savings from (a) above to lower the corporate income tax rate for companies that operate in the U.S.
c) tax credit for up to 50% of health care expenses for small businesses to help them provide health insurance to employees
d) make the research and development tax credit permanent
5. Estate taxes
McCain: no info on his website
Obama: get rid of them except for estates worth over $7 million per couple, and for those, retain the current rate of 45%
6. The tax code
Both candidates say they would like to simplify the tax code, and make it easier to file taxes.
So what do you think?
Which candidate's plan will help your family's taxes?
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3 comments:
I'm going to go ahead & spell out how this would affect our family:
Under McCain, we'd save an extra $125 on the dependent exemption. We have employer-sponsored health benefits, so our taxes would increase due to his new tax on that, but I don't know by how much. I'm willing to bet it's significantly more than $125 though. And it's not clear to me if you can still claim the $5,000 tax credit if you have employer-sponsored health insurance. So it looks to me like our taxes would either stay more or less the same, or go up under McCain.
Under Obama's plan, we'd get a new $1,000 tax credit every year, there would be an additional $1,000 credit on the child care tax credit we use, a new $500 credit for our mortgage, and up to $4,000 in credits when the kids go to college, or if M or I decided to take classes now. So leaving aside the college tax credit, that's a $2,500 tax savings for us under Obama's plan.
It's a no brainer! Went to the Obama rally tonight! I have to say after hearing him (and seeing him) in person I am 150% sold on this man! Not only is he our hope, but he is the only choice for President of the United States of America!
Jen...same for us. I worry about the abiguity of McCains plan...why aren't there any specifics?
looks to me that small businesses will benefit under Obamas plan
Can someone tell me what the point of Joe the Plumber was? He was clearly planted by McCains campaign, but he lied about his scenario, and it turns out he'd be better off under Obama...so I guess I dont get why McCain thought it was a good idea?
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