"Republicans are riddling the tax code with carve-outs and loopholes, targeting workers at both ends of the income spectrum. The OBBBA creates ways for waiters and consultants, truck drivers and technology executives, to avoid taxation-but not so much the back-office managers and accountants working alongside them. This shift stands to reduce horizontal equity, increase tax-rate dispersion, and shrink the tax base, as economists put it."
"Ronald Reagan might applaud today's party for lowering Americans' tax bills. But he would hate the contemporary GOP's complication of an already complicated system, and its use of administrative fine print to achieve populist ends. Republicans are "no longer trying to solve the puzzle of delivering tax cuts in a deficit-neutral way," Jessica Riedl of the right-of-center Manhattan Institute told me. "They're just handing out benefits like candy.""
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act lowers marginal individual rates and cuts corporate taxes while creating numerous carve-outs and loopholes that favor the wealthy. The law enables many kinds of workers—from waiters and consultants to truck drivers and tech executives—to avoid taxation through reclassifications, while leaving back-office managers and accountants more exposed. The legislation reduces horizontal equity, increases dispersion of tax rates, and shrinks the taxable base. The changes encourage taxpayers to restructure businesses, employment contracts, and workweeks to minimize tax liability. The cumulative effect risks unstable long-term revenues and shifting tax burdens onto more predictable payers.
Read at The Atlantic
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