Did tax reform hurt the elderly?

Federal and state income tax reform increased aggregate federal tax payments of elderly taxpayers by just over 5% and their aggregate state taxes by about 6%. However, the entire increase is accounted for by the elderly in the top income decile. The mean change in total income taxes paid by the elderly was $135, but the median increase was zero because most older persons paid no federal or state income tax before or after tax reform. The overall effect of tax reform was a slight shift in income tax burdens from the nonelderly to the elderly reversing a trend dating from the late 1970s.