The Senate will not go home this week. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters “I’ve become extremely doubtful that we’ll be able to make a deal if it goes well beyond Friday…” And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that the Senate will stay in session next week. He continues to meet with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to try to reach an agreement on coronavirus relief.
Does coronavirus relief need SALT? The Wall Street Journal reports (paywall) that the SALT remains a flashpoint in coronavirus relief deliberations. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) has proposed a $137 billion provision that would suspend the federal cap of $10,000 on state and local tax deductions for 2020 and 2021. The temporary repeal is in the relief bill the House passed in May. But McConnell calls it “a massive tax cut for wealthy people in blue states that has nothing to do with the coronavirus.”
What about state and local aid? The Tax Hound sounds an alarm about state and local governments’ continued fiscal limbo during the coronavirus-fueled recession. “Congress is nowhere near an agreement on the next coronavirus relief package, and the two parties are especially far apart on how much additional federal aid to send to state and local governments.”
In error, Treasury sent economic impact payments to thousands of foreign workers. The error resulted when many foreign workers incorrectly filed tax returns that made them appear to be US residents. Some are trying to amend their returns so as not to jeopardize their immigration status. The fiscal scope of the US residency error is difficult to measure, but one tax prep firm estimates that if just 5 percent of the last year’s 700,000 student and season workers with F-1 and J-1 visas received a $1,200 check in error, Treasury would have made $43 million in erroneous payments.
And yet another Lamborghini purchase with PPP funds this time in Texas. This time, a man in Houston used part of his $1.6 million Paycheck Protection Program loan to purchase a 2019 Lamborghini Urus for $233,337.60. To mix things up, perhaps, he bought a 2020 Ford F-350 pickup truck, too. Federal prosecutors allege that the man submitted five PPP applications in May and June with fraudulent information to numerous banks. He claimed to employ dozens of people.
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