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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

“Fiscal Cliff” Deal Makes Permanent 82 Percent of Bush Tax Cuts

| By CBPP

Our new report explains that this week’s “fiscal cliff” budget deal makes permanent 82% of President Bush’s tax cuts.  Here’s an excerpt:

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The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), which President Obama signed into law last night, makes permanent 82 percent of President Bush’s tax cuts.

The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) and Congressional Budget Office estimate that making permanent all of the Bush tax cuts would have cost $3.4 trillion over 2013-2022….

JCT estimates show that ATRA makes all but $624 billion of those $3.4 trillion in tax cuts permanent.  It thus makes permanent 82 percent of the Bush tax cuts, while letting 18 percent expire.

The remaining 18% of the Bush tax cuts that were allowed to expire includes: the expiration of cuts in the income, capital gains, and dividend tax rates for filers with taxable income above $450,000 for married couples and $400,000 for singles; allowing limits on personal exemptions and itemized deductions to return for filers with adjusted gross income above $300,000 for married couples and $250,000 for singles; and raising the estate tax rate to 40 percent, from the 35 percent rate in place in 2012.

Click here for the full report.