Republicans will oppose the House Democrats’ catch-all tax bill. The Ways & Means Committee is scheduled to mark-up a bill today to extend and restore several dozen tax breaks and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. It may also include some fixes to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The bill would reduce revenues by $106 billion over 10 years but Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal promised it will include pay-fors by the time it reaches the House floor. No matter what it includes, it won’t have support from Republicans in either the House or the Senate.
Trump Administration will take “strong action” to oppose a European digital tax. That what US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the Ways & Means panel yesterday. Administration officials complain the levy, which France and some other countries are pursuing on their own, would unfairly hit US tech companies.
The Administration’s latest budget position. After a meeting with Hill leaders, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Trump Administration would support a one-year spending bill at current levels and a one-year debt ceiling extension if the White House and lawmakers can’t reach a budget deal by Sept. 30. A shutdown, he says, is "off the table." For now.
Senate Appropriations Committee approves a $4.6 billion border funding bill. The panel OK’d the legislation that provides Trump with $4.59 billion for emergency spending along the southern US border. The Department of Health and Human Services would receive more than half of the amount to care for unaccompanied children. The bill needs 60 Senate votes to pass but may face objections in the House.
The Fed says economy is slowing, so it may soon cut interest rates. The central bank says the economy is now growing at a moderate, not solid, pace. Due to slowing business investment and increasing uncertainty, it will “closely monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and will act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.” Trump has been pressuring the central bank to lower interest rates.
Tune it at 9:00 am today for the annual IRS/TPC Joint Research Conference on Tax Administration. The 9th annual session will highlight research from the IRS, other government agencies, academia, and private organizations on ways to make tax administration more effective. The conference will be live streamed here.
Post-TCJA, the corporate bonus boom is over. The Department of Labor reports that private-sector spending on non-production bonuses fell by 24 percent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. That’s the biggest drop since 2005 and suggests that last year’s highly-publicized post-TCJA bonuses were a one-time boost.
Virginians have until July 1 to file state tax returns and get a one-time refund. Thanks to a $1 billion bipartisan tax relief package passed in February, individual filers could receive up to $110 and married filers could get up to $220.
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