Inflation And Income Tax Bracket

A certain amount of inflation is a necessity in a capitalistic economy.  The upside of a small amount of inflation is that it reduces the real amount of debt one owes, causes some investments such as real estate to increase in value and makes workers feel better because it helps their wages to increase over time.  The downside of inflation is that it can devastate the real value of savings and the real amount of income of those on fixed incomes such as retirees.

Another downside of inflation is that it causes wage earners incomes to creep into higher tax brackets.  Income tax rates are generally structured so that the more one makes the higher the tax bracket.  However, tax brackets are not adjusted for inflation and this causes wage earners more in taxes over time.

As an example, a worker making, say, $50.000 per year may find himself in a 20% tax bracket.  In several years, inflation may have increased the worker's cost of living by 20% or more, so he needs to be making $60,000 just to stay even.  The way Congress structures income tax brackets, they don't change over time for inflation.  So, the worker, by earning $10,000 more per year, may now be in the 25% tax bracket, yet his wages buys him no more than it did when he was making $50,000.  In effect, the government has increased the workers taxes just through inflation.

Congress knows inflation will push people into higher tax brackets over time and will cause increased tax rates on the median income.  That's one reason they like the the Federal Reserve to allow some inflation to exist in the economy and only reign in growth in the face of hyper inflation.

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