By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) – With the arrival of another April 15 U.S. deadline for filing tax returns, 2010 is likely to be the last year of lower taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
President Barack Obama and most fellow Democrats want to let Bush-era tax cuts expire for those earning more than $200,000 and households making more than $250,000.
The plan is to extend the existing tax cuts for those making lesser amounts, a careful political calculation in an election year where the entire House of Representatives and a third of the U.S. Senate face the judgment of voters.
Letting the tax cuts expire for those in the upper income groups would only impact about 2 percent of the U.S. population but generate about half a trillion dollars over ten years, according to the Obama’s budget plan issued Feb. 1.
Analysts generally expect the need for revenue, and Democrats’ control over the White House and both houses of Congress, to win out.
