Bush and Obama to Thank for American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012?

Many people credit President Obama for the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.  However, an Oxford Press University blogger discusses how, in large measure, this act confirms the tax priorities of George W. Bush. 

In the Act, President Obama achieved the goal of increasing income taxes on the country’s most affluent taxpayers.  The Act, while giving Obama some of what he wanted, also made permanent much of what George W. Bush desired in tax policy. For example, the Act made the lower levels that Bush wanted a permanent arrangement.

Additionally, Bush wanted to reduce the reach of the federal estate tax.  When he took office in 2001, the federal estate tax applied to all estates over $675,000.  Now, the Act provides that federal estate taxation will only apply to estates over $5,000,000 adjusted for increases in the cost of living.   

The Act confirms President Bush’s “triumph in permanently lowering federal income tax rates for most Americans, reducing the effective tax burden on corporate dividents, and significantly reducing the reach of the federal estate tax.”  In bi-partisan fashion, a Democratic president and senate, along with a Republican House, permanently confirmed many tax-reducing priorities in the Act.

See Edward Zelinsky, And the Winner is…George W. Bush, OUPblog, Feb. 4, 2013.