Final Republican tax bill slashes US corporate rate
If passed by Congress, the changes would be in effect for 2018 taxes, with tax returns for 2017 unaffected.
their first major legislative victory since he took office in January. Prospects for approval soared after Republican senators Marco Rubio and Bob Corker pledged support.
Three Republican senators, enough to defeat the measure in a Senate that Trump’s party controls with a slim 52-48 majority, remained uncommitted: Susan Collins, Jeff Flake and Mike Lee.
The final version hammered out between Senate and House of Representatives Republicans after each chamber previously passed competing versions contained no surprises. It would cut the corporate income tax rate to 21% from 35%, according to a summary distributed to reporters by congressional tax writers. Corporate tax lobbyists have been seeking a tax cut of this magnitude for many years. The bill, the summary showed, would create a 20-percent business income tax deduction for owners of “pass-through” businesses, such as partnerships and sole proprietorships; allow for immediate write-off by corporations of new equipment costs; and eliminate the corporate alternative minimum tax.
Under a new territorial system, the bill would ex- empt U.S. corporations from taxes on most of their future foreign profits. It also sets a one-time tax for companies to repatriate more than $2.6 trillion now held overseas, at rates of 15.5 percent for cash and cash-equivalents and 8 percent for illiquid assets.
If passed by Congress, the changes would be in effect for 2018 taxes, with tax returns for 2017 unaffected.
Democrats have been unified against the measure, calling it a giveaway to corporations and the rich that would drive up the federal deficit.
Bernie Sanders, a leading liberal voice in the Senate who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year, called the bill “a moral and economic obscenity.”
“It is a gift to wealthy Republican campaign contributors and an insult to the working families of our country,” Sanders said. Republicans have said the tax cuts are needed because the economy is not expanding quickly enough. “Now the American people are closer to a plan that will deliver higher wages, lower taxes, a simpler system, and a stronger American economy,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said. The House was expected to vote on the bill on Tuesday. Republicans have a large majority there, and passage was expected despite Democratic opposition. The bill would then go to the Senate.
Republicans can afford to lose only two votes from within their own ranks and still win Senate passage. The tax bill was expected to add at least $1 trillion to the 20 trillion U.S. national debt over 10 years, making it an unusual example of deficit spending on stimulative tax cuts at a time when the economy is already expanding. Retail brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp said on Friday it will allow clients to trade bitcoin futures on the newly minted CBOE Futures Exchange from 18 December.
TD Ameritrade’s shares were up 2.4% in extended trading.
Bitcoin prices BTC=BTSP hit a record high of $17,428 on Friday, amid warnings that it was a bubble on the verge of bursting. Cboe Global Markets Inc launched its bitcoin futures contract on 10 December, just over a week ahead of rival CME Group Inc, as the exchange operator takes the next step toward launching an exchange-traded fund based on the digital currency.
Bitcoin futures and other derivatives would make it easier for more investors and speculators to trade the new asset class.
The first bitcoin futures trades kicked off on Sunday at 6 p.m.(2300 GMT) on the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE).
Electronic brokerage firm Interactive Brokers Group Inc (IBKR.O) earlier this week said it is offering bitcoin futures under the ticker symbol “GXBT” on the CFE and plans to offer the same on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) from 18 December.