Study: Romney tax plan benefits the rich

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- White House hopeful Mitt Romney's tax plan would mostly benefit the wealthy and add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit, an independent audit found.

The plan would give middle-income households making $50,000 to $75,000 a tax cut of about $1,800, Washington's non-partisan Tax Policy Center -- a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution think tanks -- said its audit indicated.

About 44 percent of people making $10,000 to $20,000 would get a tax cut averaging about $274. More than half the low-income group would see no change in their tax bill, the policy center said.

Households making more than $1 million would get an average tax cut of almost $300,000, The Christian Science Monitor cited the figures as saying, chiefly because the wealthy households would benefit more than other groups from Romney's proposed cut of the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent, the center said.

Taxpayers making more than $1 million typically pay about 20 percent of all federal taxes, but they would receive more than 28 percent of Romney's tax cuts, the Monitor said.

Romney would cut federal taxes $600 billion, or 16 percent, in 2015 if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire Dec. 31 as planned. If the cuts remain, Romney's plan would cut revenues by $180 billion in 2015, the center said.

The reduced tax revenues would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal budget deficit, the study said. Romney's campaign disputed the figures, saying the tax cuts would improve the economy, thereby increasing taxpayer revenue.