The 10 Promises › Proposal 5 of 10 · Jump to sign
5. The Keep What You Earn Act
You earned it. You keep it.
“a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801 · Read the source
Founding principle: Government should not take the bread labor has earned.
What it does
- No federal income tax on Social Security benefits. The Social Security and Medicare trust funds are made whole from the general fund.
- No federal income tax on tips or overtime pay, permanently and without the dollar caps in current law.
- No federal income tax on your first $75,000 of earned income (wages and self-employment income), or $150,000 for married couples, indexed to inflation. This replaces the standard deduction for earners rather than adding to it.
- Ends the marriage penalty: every bracket, deduction, and threshold for married couples filing jointly is exactly twice the single amount.
- Raises the child tax credit to $10,000 per child, refundable up to the family’s payroll-tax liability.
- Payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare still apply. Takes effect the first tax year after enactment.
Why it matters to you
A bigger paycheck, starting the first tax year after it passes.
Legislative instrument: Bill (H.R.), with a Senate companion bill (S.). Revenue measures must start in the House (Article I, Section 7).
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