A comprehensive analysis of President Donald Trump's tax cuts posted on Market Watch shows that America's wealthiest families have made out like bandits since its passage in 2017, while most other taxpayers have received piddling rewards.
"In general, higher-income taxpayers reap the biggest tax savings from the TCJA, because individual tax rates were significantly reduced," the publication writes. "Simple arithmetic dictates that folks who pay heavy taxes benefit the most from that change."
Exemptions to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) have proven particularly helpful to high-income households, and big businesses have been massively helped by having the top corporate tax rate chopped from 35 percent to just 21 percent.
The rewards for most taxpayers, however, were comparatively meager and a survey conducted last year showed that many Americans believed they had received no tax cut at all.
"An online survey conducted for The New York Times and published in April of 2019 (after most returns for the 2018 tax year had been filed) found that only 40% of Americans believed they had received a tax cut under the TCJA," MarketWatch writes. "Only 20% were certain they had received one. A large minority thought their taxes had actually gone up."