UNDATED (WKRC) – Project 2025 has been much discussed over the past few months, but it’s important to understand how the plan will affect you, starting with your taxes.
Project 2025 is a 900-page guide for the next Republican president to overhaul many existing government programs, including the current tax code.
The current tax system is divided into seven brackets based on income.
- 10% – $0 to $11,000
- 12% – $11,001 to $44,725
- 22% – $44,726 to $95,375
- 24% – $95,376 to $182,100
- 32% – $182,101 to $231,250
- 35% – $231,251 to $578,125
- 37% – $578,126 or more
Each percentage is an amount that can be deducted from your taxable income.
Under Project 2025, there will be only two tax rate bands:
- 15% – up to $168,000
- 30% – $168,000 and up
Notably, the 15% tax bracket would increase taxes for those currently making less than $44,725 and reduce taxes for those making between $44,726 and $168,000. Meanwhile, the 30% bracket would reduce taxes across the board for everyone except those making between $168,000 and $182,100. Additionally, Project 2025 wants to eliminate “most deductions, credits, and exemptions.”
Project 2025 defends itself by saying that current tax laws are difficult to understand.
In an interview with CBS, Brendan Duke, senior director of economic policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said, “The federal income tax system is progressive, meaning that higher-income people pay a higher marginal tax rate than lower-income people. Conservatives look at this and feel that it’s unfair to tax wealthy people a higher percentage of their income than lower-income families.”
Duke added that Project 2025’s proposed tax reforms “are a dramatic overhaul of how government is funded, requiring the wealthy to contribute more than lower-income families — simply shifting taxes from the wealthy to the middle class.”
Duke estimated that a family with two children making $100,000 would pay an extra $2,600 in federal income tax just by eliminating the 10% and 12% tax brackets, and that could jump to $6,600 if the child tax credit were eliminated. Meanwhile, the same family making $5 million could see a tax cut of $325,000, he estimated.
Donald Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, saying he knows nothing about Project 2025, “I’ve never seen it, I don’t know who’s in charge of it, and unlike the very popular Republican platform, I have nothing to do with Project 2025.”
Other key points of Project 2025 include:
- Replace people in government with conservative politicians
- Downsizing the Federal Government
- Denial of rights to transgender people
- Eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs
- Remove sexual orientation and gender identity from discrimination protections
- Oil and gas over green energy
- Restricting the subjects taught in federally funded schools
- redirect public school funding to private schools
- TikTok ban
- Reforming the Department of Justice to better align with the president’s policy direction
- Withdrawal from the World Health Organization and various United Nations agencies
