$40 billion in Ukraine aid awaits Senate action. The House voted overwhelmingly to give President Biden $7 billion more than he requested for military, economic, and humanitarian assistance. But it is not clear how soon the Senate will act. It must first await what will be a nasty debate over abortion. And Sen. Rand Paul says he’ll stall the Ukraine money unless the bill includes provisions to monitor the spending. Because it is the Senate, the bill could be held up for other reasons as well. There are no offsets for the $40 billion.
Inflation eases…a bit. Prices rose at an 8.3 percent annual rate in April, down slightly from March’s annualized rate of 8.5 percent. The bad news: Much of the decline was due to a softening of energy prices which have since spiked up again.
There’s still time for families to get the enhanced CTC. The Biden Administration relaunched its effort to reach families who were eligible for the expanded child tax credit for tax year 2021 but did not file a tax return. To receive up to $3,600 for each child under age 6 and up to $3,000 for those ages 6 through 17, they’ll need to apply through the IRS’s online portal. Families can find the free tool in English and Spanish at ChildTaxCredit.gov or GetCTC.org.
On taxing wealth, Democrats have taken a page out of Thomas Paine’s playbook. TPC’s Howard Gleckman discusses a new analysis of a wealth tax proposed by the 18th century revolutionary Thomas Paine. The paper, by TPC’s Vanesa Williamson and law professor Jeremy Bearer-Friend, compares Paine’s tax to current Democratic plans. Howard writes that while the details of Paine’s tax differ from recently proposed taxes on wealth, the principles of his tax are immediately familiar.
Oops: DuPage County, Illinois, may miss out on millions of dollars of marijuana tax revenue. The county failed to properly request the state to collect the county’s retail tax revenue on the sale of recreational marijuana. Up to $4 million that could have been collected over 18 months may be up in smoke.
A Milwaukee woman got a $3.25 million tax refund, she’s now charged with filing fake returns. She prepared returns for two trusts for the years 2017 and 2018 but allegedly falsified income earned, taxes withheld, and refunds due; She sought $13 million and the IRS sent her $3.25 million that she deposited in her own bank account. One of the trusts was linked to a group called Moorish National Republic or Moorish Sovereign Citizen movement that claims to be immune from US laws. The government wants the money back.
Maybe there will be a windfall tax on big oil in the UK. United Kingdom officials say finance minister Rishi Sunak remains open to a tax on windfall profits earned by big oil and gas companies. Tesco chairman John Allan told BBC that the case for a windfall profits tax was overwhelming, given the genuine hardship faced by consumers. Sunak previously said the government would oppose such a tax. But an oil and gas industry executive acknowledged there is strong political pressure for the tax.
Save the date: CBO’s budget outlook will be out May 25. The Congressional Budget Office will release its updated budget and economic outlook in two weeks.
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