The highest-earning households would get the biggest income-tax break of all groups from keeping the Bush rates. They also reap the benefits of the estate tax rate being cut to a 35 percent, with a higher amount of wealth exempt from the tax.
Households with annual incomes above $250,000 face higher tax rates than other Americans, with or without the Bush cuts. But extending the cuts would mean substantial tax savings. The average family earning more than $1 million, for example, would save $128,832 in 2011, according to a Tax Policy Center estimate.
