Daniel Hemel Cited in the Wall Street Journal on Tax Forecasts
The TurboTax Defense
The Times concluded that their fictional family would owe a whopping $3,896 more in taxes under the new law. But on Friday, the Times published the following:
Correction: March 2, 2018
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the probable effect of the new tax law on a hypothetical couple’s 2018 tax bill. The TurboTax “What-If Worksheet” that generated the projection for their 2018 taxes failed to indicate that the couple would probably be entitled to claim a sizable deduction for income earned from consulting. As a result of that deduction, the amount they would likely owe on taxes would decline by $43, not rise by $3,896.
That’s quite a difference for our imaginary couple. But what if this is not the end of the story? Daniel Hemel, who teaches tax law at the University of Chicago and flagged problems with the original Times story, suggests that Times editors still don’t understand how much savings the hypothetical couple would enjoy under the Trump tax cuts.
On Monday Mr. Hemel tweeted: “Still don’t see why Samuel & Felicity aren’t claiming nonrefundable dependent credits of $500 for their children Luke & Heidi and their parent Sydney, for additional tax savings of $1500 under the new law.”
Read more at The Wall Street Journal