We’ve passed the halfway point in January and the political kerfuffle over the new tax bill has subsided, at least for the most part. So, you may be wondering — how is this going to affect me? If you’re a college student and haven’t asked yourself that, as GI Joe would say, “knowing is half the battle.”
The majority of other 20-somethings fall into one of the lowest two tax brackets. If you fall into the lowest tax bracket, this is what you would expect:
In 2017, if you made less than $9,325, 10 percent of that income was taxed. Now, in 2018, if you make less than $9,525, 10 percent of that income will be taxed. For those poor Americans, $200 separates them from the lowest and second-lowest tax rate.
If you were lucky enough to earn enough to get into the second tax bracket, the following is what you could expect:
In 2017, if you made anywhere from $9,325 – $37, 950, individuals were taxed $932.50 and 15 percent of any excess over $9,325. Now, in 2018, any individual that made from $9,525 – $38,700 would be taxed $952.50 and 12 percent of any excess over $9,525.
That means that if you fall into those brackets, you will see a decrease in the amount of taxes taken out of your paychecks. At the end of the day, that will most likely result in a marginal increase in the money in your pocket compared to 2017.
What about for North Central? Will they see a tax cut? Will they lower tuition? Well, as President Hammond mentioned in his email, the only changes that the College will see are from the elimination of advance refunding, and a new endowment tax. Thankfully, these changes do not change the College’s ability to provide scholarships to its students, as was previously worried would happen under the House version of the bill.
Dr. Maggie Gill, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at North Central, performs research funded through the federal government. As of right now, Dr. Gill does not predict any changes to her research funding. However, she does have an overall anxiety about the GOP’s anti-science sentiment. The amount of money spent on federal research is stagnant but is still low historically. Funding allocated for scientific research has not increased, even as the GDP has increased. Dr. Gill expressed concern that if scientific funding is not increased that the United States will fall behind compared to the rest of the world.
As a whole, most NCC students will see a small decrease in taxes taken out of their paychecks in the near future. However, the elimination of the individual mandate in the tax bill could impact healthcare premium prices in the next few years, so the net gain/loss of the bill remains to be seen. Luckily, for now, it does not appear that the tax bill will have any major ramifications for the school.
