Update (11/3/2015): A previous version of this blog stated that the personal credit under Rubio-Lee would be $1,750. The credit is actually $2,000.
During last week’s Republican primary debate, Senator Marco Rubio and moderator John Harwood went back and forth about which taxpayers would benefit the most from Rubio’s tax plan. Both referred to our March analysis of the plan. Harwood pointed out that Rubio’s plan benefits top income earners more than the middle class. Rubio responded by pointing his plan benefits low-income taxpayers the most.
Our analysis of the Rubio-Lee plan from back in March shows that both of them were correct. High-income taxpayers would benefit from the plan more than middle-income taxpayers, but taxpayers in the bottom 10 percent of income earners receive the largest static and dynamic change in after-tax income.
There are two main reasons why low-income taxpayers receive a large tax cut under this plan. The first is the new $2,500 child tax credit. This credit is used to offset both the income tax and the payroll tax of taxpayers with children. The second reason is that the plan replaces the personal exemption, the standard deduction, and the 10 percent tax bracket with a new per-person refundable credit. This credit would be available to all taxpayers and would actually result in many low-income taxpayers receiving more from the government than they pay.
Read the full article at the Tax Foundation: The Rubio-Lee Personal Refundable Tax Credit