The government will remain open through November 21. President Trump signed the stopgap measure last week. The eight-week extension gives Congress time to reach a broader spending deal. Or, depending on the fate of Trump’s demands for more border wall funding, it will leave time to agree on another short-term extension.
On Trump’s taxes… Deutsche Bank has revealed that it possess two individual tax returns that are covered under House committee subpoenas regarding Trump’s finances. The House Intelligence and Financial Services committees’ subpoenas seek to obtain financial records of Trump, his three oldest children, and certain business entities of the president. Meanwhile, in New York, the Manhattan District Attorney has struck a deal with Trump’s lawyers to pause its subpoena for Trump’s tax returns until October 7 to give the federal court time to decide whether the demand can be enforced.
IRS audits of Trump’s taxes… House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal is considering whether to make public a federal employee’s complaint about possible misconduct in the IRS audit of Trump’s tax returns. The employee alleges “inappropriate efforts to influence” the audit process. In August, Neal alerted Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to the complaint that could strengthen Neal’s demand for six years of Trump’s tax returns.
A better way to help working families. The House Democrats’ Working Families Tax Relief Act is good but could be better. TPC’s Elaine Maag says the bill, which would provide $85 billion in benefits to 48 million households in 2019, would provide more generous credits to working families with children and to those childless workers who get few tax benefits today. However, it misses an opportunity by allowing the personal exemption for dependents, eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to return after 2025. Maag says low-income families would be better off if Congress replaces the personal exemption with an additional new tax credit.
The FBI is investigating New Jersey’s multibillion-dollar corporate tax incentive program. Agents have interviewed potential witnesses over the past month in their investigation into a development boom in Camden. The state’s Economic Development Authority has awarded companies $1.6 billion in tax breaks tied to that area since 2013.
Amsterdam raises its tourist tax to the highest level in Europe. CNN reports the Dutch capital will raise its 7 percent hotel tax by another $3 per person per night. Airbnb rentals will be taxed at 10 percent. "It will likely make Amsterdam's the highest overnight tax in Europe, on average,” says the director of policy for European Tourism Association.
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