Over the last three administrations, taxes have been controversial and divisive in this country. The new tax plan from the Trump administration is better than expected, but still hurts the poor and benefits the rich.

As students at Sage Creek many of us are not concerned with the logistics of big political issues like taxes and foreign policy because these issues are tough to digest and don’t fit the standard of media that we are used to consuming. But, students now are realizing the value in being aware of the world around us.

Taxes really aren’t the most exciting topic— but as stated before, they’re incredibly important and will impact many students as Sage Creek in the near future.

Taxes are broken down in three different categories: federal taxes, state taxes and local taxes. Within each of these categories are separate taxes themselves. For example, federal income tax is the tax on your yearly earnings as an adult. State taxes are similar to federal taxes, except the money is given to the state specifically. Lastly, local taxes focus on property tax and some taxation on your earnings. All of these taxes are very similar in how they work but all of the money is going to separate entities.

The amount of tax you have to pay, or the percentage of tax taken federally from your annual income, progresses the more money you make per year. Currently, with the Obama tax plan, there are seven different brackets, meaning seven different taxes one may have to pay. At the moment those look like this:

Income Tax

More than $418,400 — 39.6%

$416,700 to $418,400 — 35%

$191,650 to $416,700 — 33%

$91,900 to $191,650 — 28%

$37,950 to $91,900 — 25%

$9,325 to $37,950 — 15%

$0 to$9,325 — 10%

President Donald Trump is looking to simplify the seven tax brackets in place and reduce them to three. Trump’s plan doesn’t specify any income thresholds, but based on the numbers given in the current standing plan it should look something like this:

More than $418,400 — 35%

$416,700 to $418,400 — 35%

$191,650 to $416,700 — 35%

$91,900 to $191,650 — 25%

$37,950 to $91,900 — 25%

$9,325 to $37,950 — 12%

$0 to $9,325 — 12%

Simplifying income taxes for essentially everyone in America has done things like reduce taxation on the wealthy and the middle class, but has caused a small climb for those living in incredibly low-income families to moderately low income families.

Living in Carlsbad, many of the kids that go to Sage Creek will benefit from the implementation of this tax plan, and it should be simpler for young adults like us to understand the logistics.

Besides the point of education for students at Sage Creek, there are other political points that should be addressed. Trump has followed through on promises that even Democrats can agree on. The economy is a hot button issue with political parties, as many Democratic principles are based off the the regulation of the economy in the United States.

Trump promised to reduce taxes for the middle class and tax the wealthy, and he did that, for the most part. For the audience that Trump appeals to, mostly middle class Americans, he did that perfectly. But, as we can see from the numbers above, he reduced taxes quite heavily for people like him who claim to make about “10 BILLION DOLLARS” a year.

The tax brackets provided above are not set in stone, and could change when the Senate and the House of Representatives both propose their own tax plans. But, essentially this new tax plan will benefit the rich and middle class and increase taxes for the poor.

Taxing the poor just makes the poor poorer, correct? Then why increase taxes on people who most likely cannot pay while keeping other tax bracket percentages the same? There is a give and take to taxation, and it is obvious that it is not entirely equal.