How does the federal tax system affect low-income households?
According to the Tax Policy Center:
“In many cases, low-income households owe no income tax. All households can claim a standard deduction to reduce their taxable income, and many families with children can offset income taxes with the child tax credit. In 2020, the standard deduction is $24,800 for married couples, $18,650 for single parents, and $12,400 for singles.
“Households can have negative federal income tax rates if they receive refundable tax credits. The (earned income tax credit) is a refundable credit that subsidizes earnings, particularly for workers with children. The (child tax credit) provides workers with children a credit of up to $2,000 per child under age 17, up to $1,400 of which can be received as a refund. Together, these credits deliver substantial assistance to low-income families with children. (A small EITC is also available to childless workers.) If refundable credits exceed taxes owed, households receive the excess as a payment. The net refunds created by these credits show up as negative average tax rates.”
Bear in mind, many non-citizens have unreported income, holdings, etc., in their native countries that are not subject to scrutiny or investigation by the federal government the way Americans are.
It’s fair to ask, why have we been misinformed to regard them as “the most vulnerable,” when in fact the legislative-benefit-carved-out Americans are? Is this thus the reason for the “nanny state” embracing socialism becoming too antagonistically toxic to the American working class that is fighting against this tyrannical autocracy?
Maybe we can now explain the daily toxic attacks against the struggling American working taxpayer who keeps sinking continuously by the legislative hand of our own “supposed political leaders” who keep enslaving the obedient American working class, promising help, only to keep empowering themselves and their vote-harvesting Washington swamp.
Imelda Coronado
Mission
Stop aiding
Saudi war
Weddings should be joyous events that bring families together to celebrate love. This summer wedding season, I would like to take a moment to remind readers of the April 22, 2018, Saudi coalition airstrike that killed 21 civilians, more than half of them children, at a wedding in al-Raqa village, Yemen. According to a report by The University Network for Human Rights, the GBU-12 bomb used in this attack was made in the United States.
After this U.S.-supplied bomb hit the groom’s wedding tent, body parts were strewn everywhere, some of them eaten by stray dogs.
President Biden visited Saudi Arabia last month and the U.S. government is still providing tens of billions of dollars of military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. According to the United Nations, the Yemen war caused 377,000 deaths in 2021 alone. Some 2.3 million children are currently suffering from acute malnutrition that threatens to kill 400,000 of these children if urgent action is not taken to end U.S. complicity in this war.
I would like to urge Congressman Vicente Gonzalez Jr. to cosponsor the bipartisan bill, House Joint Resolution 87, to end unauthorized U.S. military involvement in the Saudi-led war and blockade in Yemen.
Kirstin Munro
McAllen
