system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Taxes for rich, and what cutting them (like the republicans want) and raising them (like the democrats want) entails?

So to be completely honest taxes in general just confuse me (only 18, never really paid any) and i am trying to understand this argument between the two political parties in the US. 

So like, i get that your tax rate gets higher as your income gets higher. 

When people talk about republicans cutting taxes for the rich, does that mean lowering the amount that the percentage increases? 

and why is this fair and/or unfair depending on who you ask?
gpt
The specifics of the legislation being proposed vary widely... and most of the little snippets you hear aren't backed up by a real proposal, just talking points.

But I'll give you the low down of a few pieces of tax law that are being discussed:

1) The "Death Tax", aka "Estate Tax", or "Inheritance Tax".  This tax happens only when someone dies, and everything they own is transferred to the people they specify in their will.  The rate of the tax is progressive - just like income tax in the US - and caps out at 40% for the highest tier.  Democrats want to leave it as is. Republicans are trying to remove this.  The thing is - the first $5 *million* of any estate is exempted, so only a tiny percentage of people would ever have to pay this anyway.  Only the top 0.2% have estates that qualify.  This is literally a tax that only affects millionaires and billionaires - and Republicans want it gone.

2) Tax brackets.  The current system is tiered - your first $10k of income is only taxed at 10%.  The *next* $30k is taxed at 15%.  The *next* $50k is taxed at 20%.  Etc, etc, all the way up to a ~40% tax rate for income earned over ~$400k.  Both sides want changes here.  The least progressive being a flat tax (everyone pays the same percentage - whether they made $10k or $100k).  The more progressive taxes would increase the top tax bracket percentage.

3) Social Security / Medicare / Unemployment, aka the "Employment Tax".  This is a flat tax that is applied to your income of around 15% - you pay half of that and your employer (if you have one) pays the other.  Unlike the other tax brackets that are tiered, this one has a single tier - and that tier has a cap.  The current cap is about $110k, meaning that this tax is a regressive tax.  Democrats generally want to remove the cap - to make it not regressive or less so.  Republicans mostly support Social Security and want to keep the tax as is, however there is also strong Republican support for removing Social Security and Medicare completely.

4) Tax breaks/exemptions/credits.  The variety of these is immense.  We give tax breaks to all sorts of people/businesses for all sorts of reasons, and both sides want to cut them or provide them to different people.

As far as what is "fair"... that's a question with a lot of opinions.