The House will vote today and tomorrow on Tax Reform 2.0. The House will vote today on two minor pieces of the GOP’s second tranche of tax cuts—bills creating new incentives for retirement savings and start-up companies. Reuters reports that Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady expects a vote Friday morning on the major bill-the one that would make permanent the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s individual income tax cuts. With the ever-expanding controversy over the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, will anyone notice?
Tax Cuts 1.0… Fun while it lasted for GOP campaigns. Meanwhile, Brady bemoans the “false narrative” that TCJA tax cuts are for the wealthy. President Trump’s economic adviser Steve Moore says the GOP “messaging has been very poor.” The Washington Post reports that a number of GOP candidates have decided to focus their campaigns on issues like immigration or crime.
Will South Carolina parents get a tax break? The state’s Senate Finance Committee would add a $4,110 state tax deduction for dependents for the current tax year. Families with children under six could double the deduction. The effort would offset the impact of conforming South Carolina’s tax code to the TCJA, which results in residents paying an additional $253 million in taxes, according to the state’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office.
Keeping the federal government open after Sunday. The House overwhelmingly approved a massive fiscal 2019 spending bill that would keep all federal agencies running until early December. And after much back-and-forth President Trump said he’d sign it. The bill funds the departments of Defense, Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services for the rest of the fiscal year and keeps all other agencies funded at current levels until December 7.
Iowa ended the fiscal year with a surplus. The state ended its fiscal year with a general fund surplus of $127 million. The surplus comes largely from higher corporate income tax receipts. Personal income tax and sales tax receipts were also a bit higher than anticipated. In March, Iowa’s Revenue Estimating Conference Board estimated a June 30 ending balance of about $31 million.
Jordan’s cabinet sends a tax bill to its parliament. The legislature hopes to advance the bill within two months, even though it faces opposition for targeting high earners and corporate tax evaders. The Jordanian government designed the IMF-backed bill to ease rising public debt.
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