Distributional Impacts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Using Farm Household Microdata

This paper uses ten years of USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to evaluate the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). We simulate income tax returns at the household level using the survey's detailed financial and demographic information. We find that farm households in the top 10% of the income distribution realize 71% of the total tax cuts from the TCJA, while families in the bottom 20% of the distribution experience a slight increase in their income tax liabilities. Consequently, the TCJA reduces the progressivity of the tax code, particularly over years with lower farm household income.