Federal Tax Reform Update – US Senate Proposal

Posted on November 13, 2017 by chackbarth

Staff from the National League of Cities shared the following information with MML and other state leagues over the weekend, following the Senate’s release of their proposed version of tax reform…

Late Thursday, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance Orrin Hatch (R-UT) released the Chairman’s Mark of his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Senate Committee on Finance is expected to markup this legislation on November 13, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. We urge you to contact your congressional delegation, especially the Senate Finance Committee (www.finance.senate.gov/about/membership).

After 4 days, the House Ways and Means Committee concluded committee markup on Thursday as well. A floor vote on H.R. 1 is expected next week, most likely on Wednesday or Thursday.

In the House, there are still nine Republicans who are opposed to the tax bill because of its treatment of SALT: New Jersey Reps. Leonard Lance, Frank A. LoBiondo and Christopher H. Smith; New York Reps. Peter T. King, Lee Zeldin, Elise Stefanik and Dan Donovan; and California Reps. Darrell Issa and Tom McClintock. Please thank those Members of the House who are standing strong with us in writing or via social media.

The House and Senate leadership have both stated that they expect to go to conference to reconcile differences in the bills, but they could bypass going to conference entirely. Either way, they hope to send a final bill to the President for his signature in December. Below, find quick summary on bill differences.

	House Bill – Final As of Mark Up	Senate Bill – No Markup
Tax Exempt Municipal Bonds	Retained (not included in bill)	Retained (not included in bill)
Private Activity Bonds	Eliminated	Retained
Non-refundable Bonds	Eliminated	Eliminated
State and local income and sales taxes	Eliminated (except for those attributable to business income)	Eliminated (except for those attributable to business income)
Property taxes	Retained (up to $10,000)	Eliminated
Mortgage interest	Retained (but only on debt up to $500,000 for new loans; no interest on second home, no interest on new home equity loans)	Retained (but no deduction on home equity loans)
Personal casualty losses	Eliminated (except for federal declared disaster areas)	Eliminated (except for federal declared disaster areas)
Nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements	Eliminated	Eliminated
Historic Tax Credits	Eliminated	Retained (but reduces their value)
New Mark Tax Credits	Eliminated	Retained (until current authorization expires in 2 years)
Work Opportunity Tax Credits	Eliminated	Eliminated
Low Income Housing Tax Credits	Eliminated	Retained

Today, the Chairs of House Municipal Finance Caucus released an oped to protect bonds and tax credits. www.washingtonexaminer.com/…

Also, NLC was in US News and World Report on tax reform www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-11-10/…

We will continue to challenge any plan that threatens the tax exemptions for bonds used to finance critical infrastructure, eliminates the state and local tax deduction that protects local decision making and erases tax credits that strengthen communities.

Chris Hackbarth is the League’s director of state & federal affairs. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 and [email protected].

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