Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released a new bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to reform the nation’s tax code. The plan eliminates many tax deductions for individuals, and in return nearly doubles the standard deduction, expands the child tax credit, and creates a temporary tax credit for non-child dependents. Among the provisions the plan eliminates is the tax deduction for interest paid on student loans.

The deduction may have made sense back then as a means to make borrowers’ payments more affordable. But now that federal student loan borrowers are guaranteed an affordable payment, no matter their income, the deduction has become redundant.

Currently, taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income of less than $80,000 ($165,000 if married filing jointly) can deduct up to $2,500 of student loan interest from their taxes, per year. The deduction costs the federal government an average of $2.4 billion a year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Read the source article on the student loan interest deduction by Preston Cooper at American Enterprise Insitute