Dec. 20, 2017: House voted 224-201 to give final approval to the tax bill, clearing it for the President’s signature. Senate passed the tax bill 51-48, on a straight party-line vote.
CLICK HERE to read the Joint Explanatory Statement (report language explaining the tax agreement — scroll down to page 191)
CLICK HERE to read the full legislative text of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
CLICK HERE to read the UPDATED Joint Committee on Taxation revenue table.
CLICK HERE for Joint Committee on Taxation Distributional Analysis.
July 27, 2017: House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) issued a joint statement on tax reform.
March 14, 2016: Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation’s “bluebook” estimates that tax bills passed in 2015 will add $653 billion to the federal debt — primarily from making several “tax extenders” permanent and continuing other credits and deductions for 2 – 5 years, without any budgetary offsets.
Dec 18, 2015: Congress passed and the President signed the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill for FY 2016 and a $622 billion tax cut (10-yr cost) that makes permanent or extends a variety of expired tax credits and deductions and suspends or delays other taxes. The House passed the tax bill 318-109 and the spending bill 316-113, followed by Senate passage of the combined spending and tax package 65-33. Politico account of how the spending and tax package came together.
In general, the tax bill makes 19 of the 52 so-called tax “extenders” permanent, renews the remainder for periods ranging from 2-5 years, and makes other changes at a total cost (additional federal debt) of $622 billion over 10 years
Provisions made permanent (with modifications) include: the R&D credit; small business expensing; refundable child tax credit; AOTC college tuition credit; Earned Income Tax Credit; deductibility of state sales taxes in states w/o income tax; deduction for teachers’ supplies; transit benefits; certain commercial bldg. depreciation provisions; certain charity-related provisions; and certain real estate provisions including the low-income housing credit
Delays the effective date of the so-called “Cadillac Tax” (on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans) from 2018 to 2020 Background on the Cadillac Tax
Suspends for 2 years the 2.3% medical device excise tax (2016 and 2017)
Dec. 16, 2015: Statement of Administration Policy supporting passage of the spending & tax package which it says are “largely free of new unrelated ideological riders.”
January 15, 2015: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) announced the launch of five bipartisan Finance Committee Tax Working Groups to spur congressional comprehensive tax reform efforts in the 114th Congress. Policy focus areas for the working groups include: 1) Individual Income Tax; 2) Business Income Tax; 3) Savings & Investment; 4) International Tax; and 5) Community Development & Infrastructure. Click here for the 5 working groups and their co-chairs.
Dec. 19, 2014: President signed HR 5771, the 2014 “tax extenders” legislation. JCT bill summary.
Jan. 2, 2013: President Obama signed into law the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012” (ATRA) which, in general permanently extended the Bush tax cuts for most taxpayers, allowed expiration of the payroll tax cut, delayed automatic spending cuts “sequestration” for two months, and extended expiring unemployment insurance for one year. CRS summary of the fiscal cliff agreement Highlights of the January 1, 2013 Fiscal Cliff Agreement:
Makes permanent the Bush tax rates for income up to 400k for individuals and 450k for joint filers
Above that threshold the tax rate increases from 35% to 39.6%
Above that threshold tax rates for capital gains and dividends increase from 15% to 20%
Reinstates limits on the personal exemption and itemized deductions on income above 250k/300k
Extends the current estate tax exemption amount, but raises the rate to 40%
“Tax extender” provisions extended through 2013
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) permanently fixed (i.e. indexed to inflation)
Avoids the “SGR” automatic cuts (27%) in Medicare physician pay for another year
Extends through 2013 long-term unemployment benefits
Extends through FY 2013 most federal farm programs and policies, including dairy prices, in order to prevent a spike in milk prices
Delays automatic spending cuts to March 1, 2013 and reduces the required $109 billion across the board cuts in defense and nondefense spending (“sequestration”) from $109 billion to $85 billion. (It also delays until March 27 a separate $11 billion sequester of defense spending scheduled to occur because current defense spending exceeds the statutory cap set in 2011.)
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