In honor of tax season, I want to talk about an old pet peeve of mine: when people say "broad-based tax cut" or "across-the-board tax cut." Pretty much every presidential election year, some GOP candidate proposes an "across-the-board" tax rate cut--last time it was Mitt Romney--by which they mean a reduction in the marginal tax rates at all tax brackets, and the press usually reports this as "something for everyone," as though cuts in lower rates go to lower income groups, while cuts in higher brackets go to higher income brackets. That presentation is only half true: while only the highest income earners benefit from a cut in the top marginal tax rate, cuts in rates for lower brackets are actually shared by both lower income earners and those in the highest income bracket.

In general, those in the highest tax bracket always benefit the most from tax cuts in any tax bracket.

I'll refer you to Chye-Ching Huang for an explainer on why exactly that is the case, but to illustrate the point, I've made an app which lets you see how the money from various kinds of tax cuts (or hikes) is distributed across income groups. The table below the graph gives all of the maximum income thresholds for each Federal Income Tax bracket, with the corresponding tax rate to the right. Using the up/down arrows next to each, you can change any of the income thresholds or tax rates, including the standard deduction. The graph then shows how much more or less each income group would pay in taxes as a result of your policy, compared to the actual 2014 rates. I have started you out with a $50 increase in the standard deduction versus actual 2014 rates: