While everyone’s all in a tizzy trying to figure out whether or not the President actually said some countries are sh*tholes or not, here’s something that’s definitely not sh*tty: many Americans will see their take home pay increase soon, thanks to the Republican tax bill.
Yesterday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released updated income tax withholding tables, to reflect the new tax rates. According to the press release, the IRS is encouraging employers to start using these new 2018 withholding tables as soon as possible, but no later than February 15, 2018.
From the press release: “Many employees will begin to see increases in their paychecks to reflect the new law in February. The time it will take for employees to see the changes in their paychecks will vary depending on how quickly the new tables are implemented by their employers and how often they are paid — generally weekly, biweekly or monthly.”
The new tax law includes an increase in the standard deduction, as well as changes to tax rates and brackets, resulting in lower taxes for most working Americans. Because less taxes will be owed for income earned this year, less money needs to be withheld from your paycheck in order to cover your taxes.
Accordingly, with less money withheld, that’s an increase in take home pay, giving Americans an instant raise, courtesy of the Republican Party and the tax bill they passed.
This, coupled with the past few weeks of headlines about companies announcing new bonuses for their employees — corporations got a tax cut too — and it’s little wonder that Democrats are in the most delightfully ridiculous panic about the bill. They will look pretty silly continuing to tweet about the “#GOPTaxScam” when Americans open up their paychecks next month and they’re still whining.
Remember what happened with Obamacare, where regular Americans saw their insurance policies getting cancelled, premiums skyrocketing, fewer options, higher deductibles, and all sorts of other headaches. Despite all the problems, Democrats kept insisting that Obamacare was great and campaigned on that message. The American people didn’t believe them, and the Democrats lost their Congressional majorities.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this tax bill ends up creating a similar situation, except in reverse: this time the Democrats will be telling the American people the tax bill is a catastrophe of horrific proportions, but everyone whose paycheck increased will just laugh at them.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.
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