USA Benefit from Billions in Recovery Act Tax Cuts

The tax cuts in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama last February, gave 98% of American working families and individuals a tax cut, and encouraged new job-creating investments by businesses large and small.

Many of these tax credits will transform our economy for years to come, such as in renewable energy and energy efficiency. As Americans are filing their taxes, they’re seeing the results of the Democratic-led Congress and the President working together to enact an array of broad-based tax cuts for working and middle-class families and small business owners—ending an era of Republican tax breaks focused only on the wealthy:
More than one-third of the Recovery Act is tax cuts for the middle class, which is putting money in the hands of families and businesses to spread throughout the economy. Tax cuts in the Recovery Act are immediate; as of the end of March, more than $160 billion of Recovery Act tax cuts has gone out; nearly $100 billion of that has gone directly into the pockets of working Americans.

ecause of the immediate tax cuts, tax refunds are already up nearly 10 percent, pushing the average refund up to a record $3,000 per taxpayer.The Recovery Act contains 25 tax cuts for Americans, including the fastest – and one of the most widely shared – tax cuts in American history: the Making Work Pay Tax Cut in the Recovery Act. The Recovery Act also gives you a tax cut for making your home more energy efficient, buying a home, buying a car, or sending a child to college.

All totaled, the 111th Congress has enacted more than $800 billion in tax cuts, in the Recovery Act, health insurance reform, and other job-creating tax incentives for American business.

And according to a new report by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) this week, tax cuts in the Recovery Act, combined with unemployment benefits and other income support provisions, are responsible for roughly one-half of the up to 2.8 million jobs saved or created by the Recovery Act so far.

Source: The Ethiopian Review, April 15th, 2010