This article by Lori Montgomery explains that, according to a a new Congressional Budget Office report,
The 10 largest breaks in the U.S. tax
code will save taxpayers more than $900 billion this year, with a little
more than half the benefits flowing to the richest 20 percent of
households ….
Whether that's a good or thing depends, in part, on whether tax breaks are seen as a refinement of income or as expenditures (subsidies) for behavior that the country wants to encourage and that would not otherwise occur:
Some argue that it might be reasonable for the rich to receive a
large portion of the benefit from federal tax breaks because they pay an
outsize share of federal taxes. According to the independent Tax Policy
Center, the richest 20 percent of households paid nearly 70 percent of
federal taxes last year. But the CBO noted that tax breaks are
essentially equivalent to government spending, intended to encourage and
subsidize various behaviors, such as buying a home, saving for
retirement and giving to charities. The rich are likely to engage in
those activities even without such “financial assistance,” raising the
question of whether that money could be better spent on other
priorities.
