Minding Your Business: What Tax Cuts Mean for Your Wallet
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk some money right now. And with all of those tax cut proposals circulating in Washington, what could it mean for your wallet? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." Good morning.</s>ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Daryn. You look like the kind of person who could use a tax cut, right?</s>KAGAN: I was looking for one this morning when I came in.</s>SERWER: All right, who wouldn't be?</s>KAGAN: OK.</s>SERWER: Especially in New York City. Well, we got some action on the tax-cut front on Friday. The House passed a $550 billion measure. That was the easy part. Now comes the hard part, which is the Senate. The Senate much more divided over this particular issue. They're looking at a $440 billion cut. It may go down to 350. We're going to go back and forth on this one. Let's break it down, though, and talk about what it means.</s>KAGAN: Yes, what does it mean when...</s>SERWER: Right, for the average American.</s>KAGAN: Forget the billions...</s>SERWER: No, that ain't coming our way, is it?</s>KAGAN: No.</s>SERWER: All right, let's talk about the dividend tax cut. That's something obviously the president is keen on, and it's something that's very contentious right now. The House is talking about cutting the tax rate down to 15 percent. This is the top bracket from 38, 5 percent for your lowest paying Americans. The Senate wants $500 of dividend income tax-free. Now, you can see how that helps lower-income people. Obviously, everyone gets that, but for people who get less, it helps them more.</s>KAGAN: Is that for each stock, or would that be overall?</s>SERWER: That would be total.</s>KAGAN: Oh, OK.</s>SERWER: All of your money coming from dividends, the first 500 tax-free. Then also, some of the other stuff is looking pretty much the same in both the Senate and the House. Accelerating those pre- approved cuts, we already know about that. Marriage relief -- OK, the marriage penalty, we're not even going to go there, but that's a good thing if they get rid of that for me.</s>KAGAN: OK.</s>SERWER: All right, the child credit is something that obviously a lot of Americans are concerned about, and I think that's a real fairness thing, increasing the credit there as well. And we've got a nice week coming up here on the markets perhaps, too, right?</s>KAGAN: Hopefully looking good. The end of the week is strong?</s>SERWER: Absolutely. We had a triple-digit rise -- I can't that -- on the Dow on Friday, and were looking for maybe the fifth week in a row on the S&P; 500. You can see there. And I think the good news is from the stock market perspective, stocks have been going up a little bit even without a whole lot of positive news; in fact, even some negative news. So, we could see.</s>KAGAN: All right. Well, we'll see.</s>SERWER: Yes, right.</s>HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.</s>SERWER: We need that.</s>HEMMER: See you later.</s>SERWER: OK.</s>KAGAN: And we'll be watching it throughout the morning. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.