Charts of the week: Broadband accessibility, estate tax, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Click on the links or on the charts to go to the full research.

EXCEPTIONS FOR THE ESTATE TAX ARE AT THEIR HIGHEST LEVELS IN HISTORY

According to Senior Fellow Isabel Sawhill and Eleanor Krause from the Economic Studies program, revenue from the combined state and gift taxes has declined significantly since 1970 due in large part to rising exemption levels. Only two American estates out of every 1,000 deaths pay the estate tax today. In the 1970s, over 70 estates from every 1,000 deaths would have been subject to the tax. Sawhill and Krause argue that doubling the exemption limit or eliminating the estate tax altogether “would further diminish the tax’s ability to promote intergenerational mobility” through such mechanisms as a worker pay credit.

REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS DISPROPORTIONATELY REPRESENT AMERICANS WITH LESS ACCESS TO HIGH SPEED BROADBAND

In study of broadband accessibility across the United States, Adie Tomer, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program, found that Republican members of the House of Representatives serve districts where 89.4 percent of residents can physically access a wireline broadband connection, whereas Democratic House members represent districts with 97.5 percent coverage. A number of factors contribute to this divide, including higher accessibility rates in large cities and coastal areas. Click here or on the chart below to explore the broadband subscription and availability rates of districts of the 115th Congress.

25 PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS WOULD PAY MORE TAXES UNDER THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN TAX PLAN

In an analysis of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act introduced in the House Ways and Means Committee last week, experts from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center found that the legislation would reduce taxes on average for all income in 2018 and 2027, but at least 7 percent of taxpayers would pay higher taxes in 2018 and as many as 25 percent of taxpayers would pay more in 2027.