Congressman Ryan Mackenzie held a town meeting Thursday evening at the Boatyard Bar & Grill in Franklin Township, where he touted the benefits of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that was signed into law July 4.

Mackenzie represents the 7th Congressional District, which covers all of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties plus part of Monroe County.

“We’re doing events like this because, leading up to the passage of this bill, there was a lot noise and discussion about what was going to be in the bill, what wasn’t going to be in the bill,” Mackenzie said. “Now that it’s passed and signed into law we want to let the people know that the tax relief is coming when they go to file their taxes next year.”

According to Mackenzie, the main features of the bill include:

• Standard tax deduction: “The Tax on Jobs Act locks in a lower tax rate, and now the standard deduction is increased,” he said. “That’s for everyone across the board.”

• Tips: “The first $25,000 of tips will now not see any federal income tax,” Mackenzie said. “That equates, on average, to about $1,700 per person.”

• Overtime: “No federal income tax for the first $12,500 of overtime, which ends up also around $1,700 per person,” he said.

• Social Security: “For seniors, it’s a $6,000 deduction or $12,000 per couple,” Mackenzie said. “What that equates to (is) 88% of seniors will see no federal income tax on their Social Security.”

• Child tax credit: “If nothing had happened, that would have gone down to $1,000,” he said. “We increased that to $2,200 for every child in a household, and it goes up with inflation over time.”

• Small businesses: “There is now immediate expensing of capital purchases ($5,000 or more with a useful life of more than a year),” Mackenzie said. “For example, if you’re buying a new fryer for a business, previously, you would have had to spread the depreciation over a number of years. Now you get that immediate deduction of 100%, which is taken off the taxes in this year.”

• Medicaid work requirement: “The major change to Medicaid is a work requirement for people who are of working age and able-bodied; not a senior, not a pregnant woman, not a child, those being the traditional categories, and a work requirement would not affect someone like that,” Mackenzie said.