Bipartisan infrastructure bill gets more backing. Twenty senators have now signed on sign on to the “framework” of a bipartisan infrastructure plan. The group includes 10 Republicans which would be enough to win Senate approval if all Democrats backed the plan. But there are scant details of the spending package and no apparent consensus on how to pay for any of it.
Inflation rising, but just for a while. The Federal Reserve expects inflation to climb to 3.4 percent this year, higher than forecast, and signaled it may raise rates twice by the end of 2023. But in testimony to the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she doesn’t “anticipate [rising prices to] be permanent.”
And about those billionaires’ tax data… Yellen also said, “We do not know that it was a leak from the IRS” that resulted in Pro Publica’s story on billionaires who pay little or no tax. The Treasury Inspector General and Department of Justice are investigating. TPC’s Gene Steuerle writes that the expose raises key questions about the use, misuse, and development of information for political and policy purposes. He fears that the leak “will make gathering, analyzing, and releasing tax information by Treasury and IRS even more difficult.”
As for former President Trump’s tax returns… Attorneys for both Trump and the House Oversight Committee have made no progress in negotiations over the panel’s subpoena of Mazars, Trump’s accounting firm. Without a deal, a judge will decide what documents the panel gets.
Iowa’s new tax law is now in effect. Governor Kim Reynolds signed wide-ranging tax legislation into law yesterday. The measure eliminates the state’s inheritance tax, raises tax credits for housing and child care, and eliminates Iowa’s payments to local governments to offset commercial property tax cuts.
And Washington State’s Attorney General moves to dismiss a challenge to the state’s new capital gains tax. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson asked a Douglas County Superior Court judge to dismiss two lawsuits filed by the Freedom Foundation. The group claims the state’s 7 percent tax on capital gains from the sale of more than $250,000 in assets, excepting real estate and family-owned small businesses, is unconstitutional. Ferguson says the lawsuits reflect a political disagreement, not a legal challenge. He also notes that the tax doesn’t go into effect until 2022 and is not due until 2023—there’s no way for the plaintiffs to know whether they’d be directly affected by the tax.
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