For several days viewers of cable news programs have been hearing that IRS tax refunds will be lower than in the past. Whether that's good news or bad news depends on your political perspective, it seems.
A tax refund means the taxpayer had too much withheld from his/her paycheck or otherwise paid more than was actually due for the year. It's smart to pay just the right amount, but that's not always possible.
Perhaps we should be grateful that the IRS refunds the over payment, but it's no reason to celebrate. And a lower refund is no reason to fret.
So those news commentators who lament the lower refund amounts have it all wrong. And along comes Kamala Harris chiming in on that wrong headed belief:
The average tax refund is down about $170 compared to last year. Let’s call the President’s tax cut what it is: a middle-class tax hike to line the pockets of already wealthy corporations and the 1%.
12:09 PM - 11 Feb 2019
WaPo's Glenn Kessler rips it apart in Kamala Harris leaps to unwarranted conclusions in tax tweet:
This tweet combines two factoids into a highly misleading package. Yes, tax refunds are smaller, based on preliminary data. And, yes, in the long run, the Trump tax cut raises taxes on the middle class — if you make the probably unrealistic assumption that Congress will not act to rescue tax cuts for individuals.
But Harris presented these facts without nuance or qualification, making it appear as though the smaller tax refunds were evidence of a tax hike on the middle class. In reality, the size of a tax refund reflects nothing about the size of a tax cut or tax increase — and at least in 2018, the vast majority of middle-class Americans can expect to pay less in taxes as a result of the Trump tax law.
Harris earns Four Pinocchios
But being wrong and wrong headed has never hurt a politician pandering to popular belief.
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5:35 AM 2/14/2019
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