The Senate has passed the tax bill by a simple majority, 51-48. However, before it goes to President Donald Trump, the House must revote on it due to a few provisions that violated Senate rules.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) did not vote since he has returned to Arizona following a round of treatment.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) came out today as a yes, which means the bill should pass along party lines.
Yes, Democrats. The middle class will receive a tax cut. Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation said that those in the middle class “will get $61 billion in tax cuts in 2019.” From The Wall Street Journal:
That amounts to 23% of the tax cuts that go directly to individuals. By 2027, however, these households would get a net tax increase, because tax cuts are set to expire under the proposed law.The calculations are based on JCT estimates of cuts going to households that earn $20,000 to $100,000 a year in wages, dividends and benefits. Those households account for about half of all U.S. tax filers, with nearly a quarter making more and a quarter making less.
Those who make $500,000 or more, a group that makes up 1% of filers, will also receive a cuts worth $61 billion in the first year. By 2027, that cut could be $12 billion.
WSJ points out that that cut “includes income earned by pass-through businesses such as partnerships and S-corporations that pay taxes on individual returns.”
Businesses have also found some surprises in the bill, especially with the corporate tax rate going down to 21% and the elimination of the corporate alternative minimum tax. From WSJ:
The rate takes effect on Jan. 1, a year sooner than proposed in the Senate bill. That promises firms an extra year of lower tax and avoids a delay that worried many tax experts.“The level of gaming that would have occurred if you would have had a 35% rate in 2018 and a 21% rate in 2019, it would have been truly amazing,” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank.
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