Tune in at noon for your TPC Prescription with guest David Wessel. Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy director and former Wall Street Journal reporter will discuss Only The Rich Can Play, his recent book that dissects the Opportunity Zone provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. You can join David and TPC’s Howard Gleckman for their conversation here today at noon.
Going quiet on BBB. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says talks are continuing over Build Back Better. But Sen. Joe Manchin says, “There is no negotiations going on at this time, OK?” Manchin also says there is no urgency to address the Child Tax Credit, even though the benefit was reduced from $3,000 to $2,000 for most children and the monthly payments stopped when Congress failed to extend provisions of last year’s American Rescue Plan. “The Child Tax Credit is still there,” Manchin says.
St. Louis judge tosses most of a class action lawsuit over city tax refunds. The suit sought tax certain refunds for non-residents who worked remotely for city businesses during the pandemic. The city stopped paying the refunds to those workers, even many who received them in the past. While the judge refused to certify the class, the workers will appeal the ruling and challenge one remaining issue: By blocking refunds did the city create a new tax in violation of state law? Over a third of the city’s general revenue comes from its 1 percent earnings tax on those who work in the city.
Montana’s public education tax credits flew off the figurative shelf. Tax filers took less than six minutes to claim the maximum $1 million in new income tax credits for donations to “innovative education programs” in public schools. Just 23 donors claimed up to $200,000 each. While another $1 million in tax credits are available to donors to private school scholarships, only about $161,000 was claimed by Tuesday.
A New Mexico lawmaker wants to repeal the state tax on Social Security benefits. New Mexico currently taxes Social Security benefits as income, but Senator Bill Tallman has introduced a bill to repeal it. He’d offset the revenue loss by increasing the tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. New Mexico is one of 13 states that tax Social Security benefits.
Tax Hound: Excise taxes on guns and ammunition are sin taxes that don’t stop the sin. TPC’s Tax Hound returns with a look at state and federal efforts to raise excise taxes on guns and ammunition. In the wake of mass shootings in schools and elsewhere, lawmakers keep proposing new or higher gun taxes. But they probably won’t reduce gun violence.
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