Here are summaries of both the House and Senate tax bills. The general consensus is that taxes will go down for everyone in the short term, but will increase for most middle and lower income earners in the long term. In the Senate version, many of the changes expire for individual taxes, but they don’t for corporate taxes. So in the long run, big corporations and the wealthy will see big tax savings, but the rest of Americans will likely see hikes.

The House Bill:

The House Republicans released their tax plan, which was supposed to simplify the tax code but doesn’t really seem to do that. Here are some of the highlights of the plan. I find the last two particularly interesting.

• Keeps the 39.6% tax rate for the wealthiest ($1 million and over in income for married couples)
• Caps the mortgage interest deduction for newly purchased homes at $500,000 (down from $1 million)
• Allows only up to $10,000 of property tax to be deducted from federal taxes
• Increases standard deductions
• Consolidates the tax brackets (this will be good for some, not so good for others)
• Expands child and dependent tax credits
• Eliminates deductions for student loans and medical expenses
• Eliminates the adoption tax credit
• Eliminates the state and local tax deduction
• Eliminates the deduction for your tax preparer
• Eliminates deductions for losses from theft and disasters
• Eliminates deductions for moving expenses and biking to work
• Repeals the Alternative Minimum Tax (ATM)
• No changes to 401Ks or charitable contribution rules
• Lowers the corporate tax rate to 20% and pass-through tax rate to 25%
• Caps interest deductions at 30% of interest paid
• Places a one-time tax on repatriated foreign business profits and there’s an eight-year repatriation payout
• Abolishes the tax credit for electric cars (though car makers have already expanded their lines and can’t turn back now)
• Raises the retirement age by two years
• Removes tax deductions for alimony
• Repeals the Johnson Act, allowing religious officials to promote candidates and policies
• Codifies the religious definition of life: “An unborn child means a child in utero.” And “A child in utero means a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”
• Doubles the estate tax exemption immediately and repeals the tax completely in 2024. 70% of Americans think they’ll be affected; 75% think this tax could force the sale of family businesses and farms. In actuality, 2 in 1000 deaths result in any estate tax.

The Senate Bill:

This bill is very similar to the House bill but with a few new surprises:

• Delays the corporate tax cut by a year
• Reduces taxes for oil companies with foreign operations
• Reduces taxes for beer, wine, and liquor producers
• Repeals the ACA mandate, which would raise premiums and knock millions of people off insurance
• Fully repeals state and local tax deductions (the House repeal is partial)
• Keeps the mortgage interest deduction
• Maintains seven tax brackets instead of reducing to four
• Puts an expiration date on individual tax changes
• Gives additional deductions to pass-through businesses, but they expire
• Keeps deductions for medical and college expenses
• Expands tax-free 529 savings accounts to include K-12 instead of just college expenses
• Doesn’t repeal the estate tax
• Gives deductions to new investments for corporations
• Raises the threshold for the ATM instead of getting rid of it completely
• Doubles the deductable amount for teachers to by supplies
• Keeps deductions for education and tuition waivers
• Increases allowable medical deductions
• Opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling
• Increases the amount of time you must live in your home before getting a break on capital gains