Today in the Senate: Democrats would open the door to state SALT workarounds. Democrats plan to force the Senate to vote on a resolution that would allow states to try to protect residents from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. The resolution would block IRS rules that prohibit state workarounds. It  needs 50 votes to pass.

And at Ways & Means today: That vaping tax could fund health-care tax breaks. The House Ways & Means Committee will mark up a bipartisan bill to tax  “any nicotine which has been extracted, concentrated or synthesized” equal to the rate at which cigarettes are currently taxed. The tax would raise $9.9 billion over ten years and offset the cost of a package of health care-related tax breaks the panel also plans to consider today. They  include a measure that allows health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts to cover costs of over-the-counter drugs and menstrual products.

House Democrats ask to be dismissed from one of President Trump’s lawsuits. The president is challenging a New York law that requires the state to turn over tax returns of public officials to congressional committees that ask for them. The House Democrats argue that they should be dropped from the suit because they have not harmed President Trump and are immune from the lawsuit under the Constitution’s speech or debate clause.

Investors are wary of Opportunity Zones. The Wall Street Journal reports (paywall) that investments in the zones, created by the TCJA, have been lagging. The accounting firm Novogradac & Co., which advises fund managers and investors on tax incentives, finds that  opportunity-zone funds so far have raised less than 15 percent of their goals on average. The Opportunity Zones may be a harder-than-expected sell because they are so new and because they require investors to remain in the funds for ten years to get the full tax benefits. 

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