How much money might you save under the sweeping tax reform proposed by President Donald Trump's team in Washington last week?
Who knows. The dollars are in the details _ and we don't have them quite yet. Expect plenty of debate on whether the wealthy will benefit more than the middle class.
"It is my opinion that a high-income person benefits more than a lower-income person," said Leon LaBrecque, CEO of LJPR Financial Advisers in Troy, Mich.
LaBrecque said he ran numbers for 900 clients based on earlier Trump proposals. He noted that people who had itemized deductions in the $10,000 to $15,000 range would save more money if the standard deduction is doubled, as proposed.
"The real question of the whole tax bill is who is going to pay for all this stuff?" LaBrecque said.
While supporters talk of the economic growth to be generated by cutting taxes, others question how much growth is realistic.
"You would need about a 5 percent GDP growth rate to make this work, and I don't see it," LaBrecque said.
What we do know is that Trump's plan calls for some extreme changes, such as the doubling of the standard deduction, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, cutting out the deduction for state and local taxes, and other big tax breaks.
Sweeping changes won't come overnight _ or maybe ever, some say.
Some maintain that dramatic changes to the tax code could face more hurdles in Congress than the disastrous battle so far to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump's administration agrees that it won't be easy.
"We will be attacked from the left, and we will be attacked from the right," Gary Cohn, chief economic adviser to the president and director of the National Economic Council, said in a media briefing after the plan was announced.
But Cohn stressed that the tax breaks will boost economic growth and create jobs. And he argued that ultimately the pitch for economic growth will gain traction, leading to major tax reform.
"It's about the economy," Cohn said.
Some key points released last week:
