McCain & Obama's Plans For Your Tax Bill

As we head toward the climax of the 2008 presidential election, we'd like to bring you the highlights of some tax-related proposals of each of the candidates. We're not here to promote either candidate. While there are many other considerations in selecting your candidate, few will hit you as directly in the pocketbook as the income tax.

The Washington Post shows a nice summary of the effect the candidates changes would have on your family's income. You can see quickly that Obama favors reducing the overall tax burden slightly, but leans toward increasing the taxes for high-incomers to fund further reductions for those in the lower income levels. McCain's plan would reduce overall taxes further, and would provide some relief for all income levels, with more reductions to the high-incomers who pay more of the taxes.

If you'd like some detail on the proposals, visit the Tax Policy Center. Some of the highlights:

Issue	McCain	Obama
Capital gains/dividend tax rate (currently 15% max)	15%	20%
Max Corporate tax rate (currently 35%)	25%	35%
Estate tax exemption	$5 Million	$3.5 Million
Estate tax rate	15%	45%
Other	Require 60% approval for tax hikes	Impose additional 2-4% Social Security tax on those making over $200k-250k
	Increase dependent exemption by 70%	Increase education, earned income and child care credits for low incomers