The New York Times really, really wants to prove the Republican tax plan is a bad idea. They tried to find people who were unhappy with it, but the most they could get was that people were less than ecstatic over receiving $30-$40. They weren’t unhappy, mind you, just not jumping up and down over it.
If that wasn’t enough, though, the same publication just had to correct a story featuring a fictional couple that was supposedly getting a hike in their taxes. The story from late February featured “Samuel and Felicity Taxpayer,” a pretend couple the Times invented. They made $183,911 a year with Samuel as a self-employed engineering consultant, and with Felicity is as an employee of a design company of some sort.
Now, if the Times invented them, it’s not hard to imagine they were intentionally designed to highlight any and all flaws in the tax deal. Tax software company TurboTax partnered with the paper on the story and found that the imaginary couple would have to pay an extra $3,896 in taxes under the GOP tax plan.
Except, well … they wouldn’t.
Unversity of Chicago law professor Daniel Hemel realized the article got a few things wrong:
NYT has a really nice infographic explaining the ways in which the new tax law will play out on the 1040. Unfortunately, the bottom line conclusion — that Samuel & Felicity will owe $3,896 more in taxes under the new law — appears to be wrong. They’ll actually owe less. 1/ https://t.co/XunsCVIJir
— Daniel Hemel (@DanielJHemel) February 26, 2018
I say this as someone who is generally happy to point out the ways in which the new tax law produces unattractive results. But this couple appears to be among the winners — largely on account of the fact that Samuel is self-employed. 2/
— Daniel Hemel (@DanielJHemel) February 26, 2018
The Times calculates the couple’s taxable income in 2018 as $116,097. But it omits the § 199A deduction that Samuel can claim as a self-employed engineering consultant. That’s 20% x $89,454 = $17,891, and reduces their taxable income to $98,206. 3/
— Daniel Hemel (@DanielJHemel) February 26, 2018
As the Washington Free Beacon notes, then the signal got boosted. “Hemel’s tweets were highlighted by the Wall Street Journal‘s James Freeman, who wrote, ‘This must be some package of tax cuts, if even fictional characters invented by the New York Times are getting one!'”
Eventually, the Times issued a correction, noting, “As a result of that deduction, the amount they would likely owe on taxes would decline by $43, not rise by $3,896.”
Whoops.
For all the hate at the Times over the tax plan, the only legitimate complaint they seem to have been able to muster is that it could have been bigger. Frankly, I suspect a lot of people on the right would agree with that complaint.
However, I don’t think that’s the complaint the Times wanted to make in the least.
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