Barrasso and Republican Senators Propose Middle-Class Savings Protections

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), joined Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Steve Daines (R-MT), and James Lankford (R-OK) Tuesday in introducing legislation to provide relief and protections for middle-class savings. These savings are still facing federal taxes despite significantly diminished value imposed by historic rates of inflation. According to a media release from Senator Barrasso’s Office, the Middle-Class Savings and Investment Act is intended to help American families, retirees, ranchers, and farmers as inflation outpaces any interest earned or gains accrued by their savings through targeted tax relief.

The proposed legislation would target relief for Americans by excluding a reasonable amount of interest income from being subject to tax, $600 for married couples and $300 for individuals; more than doubling the size of the zero percent (lowest) tax bracket for long-term capital gains and qualified dividends, and indexing the income thresholds to inflation; eliminating the marriage penalty that exists in the current Net Investment Tax—which subjects some income to an additional 3.8 percent tax—and indexing its income threshold to inflation, and increasing the maximum ‘savers credit’ an individual may receive for contributing to qualified retirement accounts and expanding the availability of this credit to more taxpayers.