The simplest way to conceive of Mitt Romney's tax proposal is the Bush Tax Cuts on steroids. It's not sweeping tax reform. The rates don't change. The deductions stay put. Instead, it's a time machine back to 2008 ... with a big pair of scissors to make some additional cuts.
The GOP frontrunner would permanently extend the Bush/Obama tax cuts in addition to eliminating both the estate tax and the tax on capital gains for "non-rich" families. He would not extend the majority of the tax cuts and tax hikes passed in the Obama administration.
This is Mitt Romney's tax plan in five steps, as analyzed by nonpartisan Tax Policy Center:
1) Permanently extend the Bush/Obama tax cuts
2) Cancel almost all the tax breaks passed under Obama, including: the American Opportunity tax credit for higher education, the expanded refundability of the child credit, and the expansion of the earned income tax credit, and the surtaxes on high-income individuals imposed by Obamacare
3) Eliminate tax on long-term capital gains, dividends, and interest income for households under $200,000
4) Repeal the federal estate tax, while continuing the gift tax with a maximum tax rate of 35 percent.
5) Reduce the corporate income tax rate from 35 to 25 percent and make the research and experimentation credit permanent
For a family making less than $10,000 a year, the average tax bill would go up by $112. For a family making more than $1,000,000 a year, the average tax bill would go down by about $145,000.