Senate to vote on final GOP tax bill
Senate to vote on final GOP tax bill;- The Senate is poised to pass the final version of the GOP tax bill early Wednesday morning, after hours of floor speeches.
he House will revote on the bill it passed to much fanfare Tuesday afternoon, fearing procedural violations in the version it already passed. That vote will likely take place Wednesday.
The legislation is expected to pass both chambers, despite the absence of Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who is home with his family for the holidays while dealing with the side effects of his cancer diagnosis.
Several provisions in the House-passed overhaul appear to violate the procedural rules of the Senate, according to Democrats. Republicans struck the contested provisions from the bill and changing the language of the legislation.
One possible violation involves the use of 529 savings accounts for home-schooling. Another possible violation exempts colleges from a new endowment tax if they have fewer than 500 students paying tuition. Another objection appears technical in nature, as the bill repeals a section by its number, instead of the title of the section.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said this after news of the revote:
“The House revote is the latest evidence of just how shoddily written the GOP tax scam really is,” she said in a statement. “The wealthy and well-connected will be exploiting the hidden loopholes and giveaways in the GOP tax scam for years to come. Meanwhile, middle class families pay more and our children get stuck with the bill for an exploding national debt. Tomorrow, the American people will once again see the contempt House Republicans have for the future of the American middle class.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Fox News Tuesday night said the bill will be “only slightly” different when the Senate votes on it Tuesday evening.
The news of a revote comes after much fanfare upon the bill’s passage in the House. House members approved the bill in a 227-203 vote. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin sat in the Speaker’s box inside the chamber, observing the vote.
“This is the greatest example of a promise being made and promise being kept,” Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said at a press conference a few hours before the vote.
GOP lawmakers from both chambers struck a deal last week on the tax plan and released the legislative text on Friday. The tax plan also includes a repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate.
Here are the details of the final tax agreement, according to highlights from the conference committee:
- Eliminates penalty under the Affordable Care Act for failing to have health insurance
- Lowers corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent (higher than the original 20 percent in the House and Senate bills)
- Reduces top effective marginal tax rate for S corporations to a top rate of 29.6 percent, allowing for a 20 percent tax deduction that applies to the first $315,000 of joint income earned by all S-corporations
- Eliminates corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT); increases the exemption amount from the AMT for individuals
- Keeps seven individual tax brackets, although those brackets would change.
- Continues to exempt the value of tuition waivers from taxes (the GOP had considered counting tuition waivers as income, and thus, taxable.)
- Increases the refundable portion of the child tax credit to $1,400, thanks to Sen.
- Marco Rubio’s insistence. The overall child tax credit will increase from $1,000 to $2,000.
- Roughly doubles the standard deduction, from $6,350 to $12,000 for individuals, and from $12,700 to $24,000 for married couples filing jointly
- Preserves the child adoption tax credit
- Allows filers to write off the cost of state and local taxes, but only up to $10,000.
- Filers must choose from among sales, income and property taxes for the deduction, instead of being able to deduct all local taxes.
- Preserves the mortgage interest deduction for all homeowners with existing mortgages, and for homeowners with new mortgages, the home mortgage interest deduction will be available up to $750,000
- Preserves the charitable deduction as it is
The GOP claims the bill will mean a $2,059 tax cut for a family of four earning the median family income of $73,000.
Source:-Â https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-tax-bill-senate-vote-today-live-house-new-tax-bill-byrd-rule-revote-tomorrow/
