WASHINGTON, D.C. – With tax filing season underway, 91 percent of Americans are having an easier time than ever filing their taxes thanks to the Working Families Tax Cuts. With a new boosted standard deduction, Americans can save 210 million hours combined on doing their taxes as well as $13 billion in compliance costs. Soon they’ll be receiving the largest tax refunds in history, boosted by an average of $1,000. 

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) said: 

“Working families were our top priority in these tax cuts. Not only did we want to help them achieve the American dream and better afford daily necessities, we also wanted to make filing their taxes less of a burden. Those goals became a reality, with the new boosted standard deduction, making tax filing easier than ever. Because of the increase, the first $73,000 made by a couple with two kids can owe zero federal income tax, saving them the trouble of itemizing and doing more paperwork to feed the IRS bureaucracy. 

“We protected working families from an unaccountable, supercharged IRS. Democrats did not just want to hire 87,000 new auditors that would go after the middle class and small businesses, they also wanted to create an unlawful new government-run tax filing program that would have added even more headaches and turned the IRS into the American people’s tax preparer, filer, and auditor. Republicans brought an end to that bureaucratic nightmare. We also saved gig workers from having to face onerous reporting requirements, and small businesses and workers got relief from an increased 1099-MISC threshold. 

“Republicans have created a tax code that works for working families – not against them.”

Here are the key ways tax filing is easier this year:

• A permanent increased and enhanced standard deduction, claimed by over 90 percent of taxpayers.
  • The 2017 Trump Tax Cuts created a doubled standard deduction that was set to expire – which would have resulted in a tax increase for most Americans.
  • Instead, Republicans made the doubled standard deduction permanent, and boosted it to:
    • $15,750 for single or married filing separately filers, 
    • $31,500 for a married couple filing jointly, 
    • $23,625 for head of household filers. 
• Repealed the Democrats’ $600 reporting requirement for payments through Paypal or Venmo. 
• Repealed Democrats’ requirement for paperwork reporting of small payments to casual sellers and service providers.
  • The Working Families Tax Cuts increased the 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC threshold to $2,000, reducing the paperwork burden for farmers and small businesses.