Bills
| 3.23.22

CRUMBS Act: Should Bonuses Up to $2,500 This Year be Tax-Free for Individuals? (H.R. 5012)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 5012?

(Updated July 5, 2019)

This bill — the CRUMBS Act  — would make all bonuses received by individuals in 2018 tax-free up to $2,500 for federal tax purposes.

The bill’s full title is the Creating Real and Useful Middle-Class Benefits and Savings (CRUMBS) Act. The acronym is a reference to a comment made by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who derided the bonuses given by businesses to hundreds of thousands of employees because of the Republican tax reform law as “crumbs”: “In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic.”

Argument in favor

To ensure that workers get the most out of the bonuses their employers awarded them due to tax reform, bonuses of up to $2,500 this year should be tax-free for federal tax purposes.

Argument opposed

Congress shouldn’t allow bonuses of up to $2,500 to be tax-free this year as the government needs revenue. Alternatively, bonuses of that size should be permanently tax-free.

Impact

Workers receiving bonuses; and the IRS.

Cost of H.R. 5012

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) introduced this bill to make bonuses received in 2018 tax-free up to $2,500 to help lower and middle-class families:

“Americans are receiving thousands of dollars in bonuses and more money in their paychecks thanks to President Trump’s tax reform, but out-of-touch Democratic leaders believe they only amount to crumbs. The CRUMBS Act will let Americans keep more of the money they receive as a result of President Trump’s tax reform, and allow them, not the government, to choose how best to spend their bonuses.”

This legislation has the support of three cosponsors, all of whom are Republicans.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: solidcolours / iStock)