McCain - Tax Relief

"Sen. McCain's economic plan gives nearly $4-billion in tax breaks to the oil companies but doesn't provide any tax relief to more than 100-million middle-class families."

Barack Obama on Friday, July 18th, 2008 in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

FALSE

The Tax Policy Center says McCain’s policy proposals collectively would reduce the tax exposure of 60 percent of all American households

provisions that would help individuals with lower household incomes.

Chief among these is a proposed increase to the exemption taxpayers may claim for each dependent — currently $3,500 — by $500 each year beginning in 2010 until it would reach $7,000 in 2016, after which it would be indexed for inflation. Under the McCain plan, married couples that file a joint return reporting adjusted gross income of $50,000 or less would be eligible for the $7,000 exemption immediately. So clearly, middle- and lower-income households with children would receive above-average tax cuts.

McCain also would raise and index for inflation the threshold for the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, a separate income tax that was intended to ensure that people did not use loopholes to avoid paying taxes but that has been ensnaring more and more middle-income Americans.

McCain would also extend President Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, currently set to expire at the end of 2010. Those cuts collectively reduced top marginal tax rates on individuals’ incomes, cut the rates on capital gains and dividends, expanded the child tax credit and reduced taxes on married couples