Tax Reform progress – Part II
Since our Tax Reform post 4 days ago (see the original post below), the House and Senate seem to be meeting in the middle in order to vote on a bill next week.
Here are the present areas of compromise
in what may be the final bill.
| Area of Change | Proposed changes |
| Corporate Rate | A rate of 21% (down from the current top rate of 35%) to take effect in 2018. |
| Individual Rate | Top rate drops from 39.6% to 37% |
| State-Imposed Taxes | Total Deduction of up to $10,000 of state, local, property, and sales taxes. |
| Mortgage Interest | Interest deduction on loans up to $750,000 (previously $1,000,000). |
| Alternative Minimum Tax | Perserves the AMT, but would apply to far fewer people. |
| Affordable Care Act | End the individual insurance mandate |
| Employee Business Expenses | Unreimbursed items taken as itemized deductions (including Tax Preparation Fees) are eliminated. |
Stay tuned as more developments are coming.
It seems that, much like the Atlanta weather, if you don’t like today’s tax law – just hang on and it’ll be different next week. This is literally true as the House and Senate Tax Reform bills contain some major areas they disagree on.
As of last week, here’s a summary of the major points to be worked out in joint committees. We post the news as it happens. You can get free text updates by clicking here.
| Proposed Law |
House Bill |
Senate Bill |
| When do the individual provisions expire? | Most are permanent | Most expire in 2025 |
| What about the mandate to buy health insurance? |
Preserves it | Eliminates it by reducing the penalty to $0 |
| What are the tax brackets and rates? |
Calls for four brackets: 12%, 25%, 35% and 39.6% | The new rates would be: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, 38.5% |
| What’s the new Standard Deduction? | Raises it to $12,200 for single filers; to $18,300 for heads of household; to $24,400 for joint filers |
Raises it to $12,000 from $6,350 for single filers; to $18,000 from $9,350 for heads of household; to $24,000 from $12,700 for joint filers |
| What about the Child Tax Credit? | Increases it to $1,600 from $1,000 | Increases it to $2,000 from $1,000 and Allows it for children under 18, up from 17 today, but only until 2025 |
| What about new family credits? | Creates temporary $300 personal credit for parents and their non-child dependents |
Creates a temporary $500 credit for dependents who aren’t children |
| Are there changes to mortgage interest? | Lowers the amount of mortgage debt on which interest may be deducted to $500,000 from $1 million |
No Change |
| What about the AMT? | Repeals | Keeps it but raises the amount of money exempt from it through 2025. Then income exemption levels revert to present law |
| What about the Death Tax? | Doubles the exemption levels for six years then repeals the estate tax in 2024 |
Shields more people from it by doubling the exemption levels to $11 million for individuals and $22 million for couples |