Indiana Republican leaders, U.S. Sen. Todd Young and U.S. Reps. Susan Brooks and Jackie Walorski, traveled with President Donald Trump to Indiana on Wednesday to unveil a unified tax reform plan that aims to create more jobs while helping Americans keep more of their paychecks.
The White House, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee released the unified tax reform framework on Wednesday. It outlines specific steps to achieve middle class tax relief and to spur job creation and economic growth.
Young said Trump made a convincing case that tax reform package would boost the economy and increase the take-home pay of Indiana residents. “For the first time in 30 years, the prospects for a simpler tax code that lowers taxes for the working class and provides relief for small business owners look good. Let’s seize this opportunity and deliver on our promises to the American people,” Young said.
The tax reform framework calls for lowering the middle-class tax burden by doubling the standard deduction, expanding the child tax credit and establishing non-refundable tax credits for non-child dependents. It also calls for enabling taxpayers to file taxes on a postcard by eliminating most itemized deductions. Still, it calls for maintaining tax incentives for home purchases and charitable donations, and for the consolidation of seven tax brackets into three.
“Now is the time to provide Americans with a tax code that is simpler and fairer,” Brooks said. “Our tax reform plan, which the president outlined in Indianapolis (on Wednesday), allows Hoosiers to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks leaving them more money to invest in their families, futures and communities. The president knows that tax reform will keep our country competitive on a global scale.”
Brooks also highlighted the need to eliminate special interest loopholes, and the tax reform framework would achieve that while retaining tax credits for research and development and low-income housing. It would also lower the small business tax rate to 25 percent and the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, 2.5 percent below the average among industrial nations.
“President Trump came to Indiana to make the case for tax reform because our state has shown the country what’s possible when we give hardworking families and innovative job creators a chance to succeed,” Walorski, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said. “It was an honor to travel with President Trump and talk with him about the needs of 2nd District Hoosiers.”
“I look forward to continuing to work together to pass pro-growth tax reform and middle class tax cuts that will unleash economic growth and let Americans keep more of the money they earn,” Walorski added.