Five tax reform issues dividing Republicans

[corbe]

Five tax reform issues dividing Republicans

 By Naomi Jagoda - 05/29/17 07:00 AM EDT 

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are working toward unifying around a single tax-reform bill, aiming to pass the legislation this year.

But there are still some key differences between the priorities of the White House, the House and the Senate that need to be ironed out.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) have said that Republicans agree on about 80 percent of a tax reform package. But working through that final 20 percent could take some time.

Here are five tax reform issues that Republicans need to resolve.

How long should the tax changes last?

House GOP leaders on tax reform are pushing for the changes to be permanent, but some senators and administration officials have expressed openness to temporary tax changes.

Procedural rules play into this debate. If Republicans want to pass a tax-reform bill under “reconciliation” to bypass a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, the legislation can’t increase the deficit outside of the budget window. As a result, a tax bill either needs to be revenue neutral — meaning that it won’t increase the deficit — or make the tax cuts on only a temporary basis.
The top tax-writers in the House want to produce a permanent tax bill that’s revenue neutral, after accounting for economic growth. They argue that permanent changes to the tax code are necessary for businesses’ long-term planning.

But some GOP senators are more interested in producing legislation with a net tax cut, which could mean making the cuts temporary under reconciliation. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) suggested in a Bloomberg View op-ed earlier this month that Congress could extend the budget window from the traditional 10 years to 20 or 30 years to enact longer-lasting tax cuts.

“A 20- or 30-year tax reform would be as close to permanent as we can get since Congress would be likely to overhaul the tax code within that period anyway,” he wrote.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney have also said they are willing to consider lengthening the budget window. And Mnuchin has said that short-term tax cuts are preferable to no tax cuts at all.

"Permanent is better than temporary, and temporary is better than nothing," he said at a hearing on Wednesday.

How low will the tax rates be?

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http://thehill.com/policy/finance/335346-five-tax-reform-issues-dividing-republicans

[Oceander]

The five issues themselves:

• How long should the tax changes last?
• How low will the tax rates be?
• What happens to the controversial border adjustment tax?
• How will the tax bill treat business investments?
• Will tax reform be tied to infrastructure spending?

[truth_seeker]

Published in Washington Post, validating Romney's unfortunate but true statement.

[Bigun]

Pffft!  Just more tinkering around the edges of the Marxist income tax!   No reform involved!

[Fantom]

The five issues themselves:

• How long should the tax changes last?
• How low will the tax rates be?
• What happens to the controversial border adjustment tax?
• How will the tax bill treat business investments?
• Will tax reform be tied to infrastructure spending?

Thank you for the synopsis.

First, I will say I favor a border adjustment tax. They tax us..we tax them.

Second and more importantly. I would like to see the first $100,000 or even $250,000 of business income be tax exempt. This would be a major economic boon. Small business need this. We already have something like in personal income.. "Earned Income" tax credit... zeros out many tax returns.. including what is paid into Socialist Insecurity.

Breath life into small business... and freedom will prosper.