House GOP’s latest ACA replacement bill surfaces. In its effort to thread the needle between party factions, the GOP leadership’s latest draft would replace the ACA’s income-based tax credits with its own… income- and age-based credits, Politico reports. The plan reportedly would also retain most of the ACA’s tax increases until 2018. The Cadillac tax on costly employer-provided insurance plans would stay on the books (presumably for the paper revenue) but be delayed until 2025. The GOP leadership still expects committees to mark up a bill this week.
But will we be saying dasvidaniya to tax reform, at least for 2017? TPC’s Howard Gleckman wonders how Congress and the White House can do tax reform in a year that increasingly looks like it will be spent wrangling over health care and the ongoing saga of the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Have we become a country of savers? Not quite. A new survey says only 6 percent of those expecting a tax refund this year plan to splurge. But the Bankrate survey shows that 27 percent will use it to pay down debt. One-third will save or invest. But nearly 30 percent will spend refunds on basics like food and utility bills.
How does Mississippi spend its casino tax revenue? The state’s 28 casinos reported $2.1 billion in revenue after paying winners. Casinos pay a 12 percent tax on that revenue before they deduct the cost of wages and other business expenses. Counter to what many residents might think, the funds are not earmarked for public education. Two thirds of the money goes to the state, but all but $8 million ends up in the state’s general fund.
“It’s alive!” Financier Emily Hunter Salveson is making the most of the grandfather clause of IRC 181. It’s the now-expired federal production tax incentive, which allows film and television producers to deduct up to $15 million of expenses in the year that production starts, rather than waiting for release of the movie or show. Her new production company includes 12 unfinished films which all qualify for the tax credit. Somebody should tell Mel Brooks.
A soda tax taketh, a soda tax giveth. Pepsi says it will lay off 80 to 100 workers at distribution plants that serve Philadelphia because the city’s soda tax has cut sales by 40 percent. Philadelphia Mayor Kenny’s office noted that as of last week, the city saw a growth of 251 new jobs since the soda tax went into effect, mostly full-time pre-K teaching positions.
Ukraine’s tax and customs chief is in trouble. A Kyiv court heard motions yesterday against Roman Nasirov. The Ukraine government suspended him from his post last week due to a graft investigation. He is a suspect in a case of fraud and embezzlement of over $100 million in tax revenues from natural-gas delivery contracts.
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