Romney would also allow the American Opportunity Tax Credit for higher education, the earned income tax credit, and the childcare credit to expire. According to Williams, Americans with low incomes would receive little tax relief.
"Everybody's held harmless except the people at the bottom," he says.
Economic benefit?
It's clear Romney's plan would benefit the wealthy and penalize the poor, while under the Obama plan the wealthy would be punished. "Tax reform has winners and losers," Williams says.
But according to Will McBride, chief economist at the DC-based Tax Foundation, tax reform has wider implications. The Romney plan has incentives to invest, he says, while there is currently no federal penalty for spending in the form of a federal sales tax. He said be believes rewarding consumers for investing would have a wider economic benefit.
"Romney's approach of lowering [the] tax rate on investors is more likely to lead to more economic growth," McBride says. "There aren't additional levels of taxes on consumption. We have an anti-saving, anti-investment tax code."
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