See you in court? President Trump has asked Attorney General William Barr to review House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal’s request for six years of the president’s tax returns. White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News yesterday that Neal will “never” see the returns and Trump’s attorney William Consovoy called Neal’s request a “gross abuse of power.” Neal made said his request was necessary to learn “the extent to which the IRS audits and enforces the federal tax laws against a president.”
Will Neal need more of the president’s tax returns than he asked for? TPC’s Steve Rosenthal thinks Neal eventually will need to request more than six years of Trump’s personal and business returns. Steve argues that Neal will need more years since the IRS is unlikely to have completed audits of Trump’s most recent returns and that he’ll need tax information from Trump’s lower-tiered business entities.
This week on the Hill. Tomorrow, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig will defend their 2020 budgets before the House Appropriations Committee. On Wednesday, Rettig will testify on the 2019 tax filing season before the Senate Finance Committee. Also Wednesday, the House Ways & Means Committee will hold a hearing on comprehensive proposals to enhance Social Security.
With just a few changes, the CTC could be bigger for families who need them most. TPC’s Elaine Maag shows how policymakers could make relatively minor changes to the Child Tax Credit to direct more resources to families with the highest needs. The changes include amending the CTC to allow all earnings to count toward the credit’s calculation, allowing the full $2,000 credit to be refundable, or phasing in the credit faster. These adjustments would largely assist the lowest-income families with children without unduly raising the overall cost of the credit.
Ohio’s gas tax increase leaves Toledo on an off-ramp. The city, along with other Ohio municipalities, can expect a 60 percent or more increase in motor fuel tax revenue thanks to a 10.5-cent-per-gallon increase in the state’s levy. That translates to about $5 million for Toledo. But the state’s also reduces funding to cities like Toledo that generate traffic fines by using cameras to identify violations. Says Toledo’s mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz “Toledoans will now be forced to pay higher gas taxes, and yet incredibly enough, they will see their budget cut by $6.5 million.” The mayor concludes that state lawmakers “hate Toledo, and they have now passed a budget that proves it.”
New York vapers will pay a new 20 percent tax on e-cigarette products starting December 1. The state’s fiscal 2019-2020 budget includes the levy on the liquid and gel used in electronic cigarettes, cigars, and vaping pens. The tax applies whether or not the material contains nicotine and is expected to generate $2 million by the end of fiscal year 2019-2020 and $19 million in fiscal year 2020-2021. Revenue will go to the state’s Health Care Reform Act Resource Fund.
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