GOP/POLITICS/TAXES: “Republicans reconciling House and Senate tax bills say they are narrowing their differences, putting a $1.4 trillion tax cut on track to be unveiled by Friday [12-8-17] and passed by both chambers next week.
Tuesday evening, Senate Republicans were preparing to send their latest offer back to their House counterparts, in a negotiation that centered on whether to set the corporate tax rate at 21% or 22%, or to maintain a goal of cutting the tax to 20% from its present 35% level.
Negotiators were making movement on a number of other issues. For example, they were leaning toward adopting and refining a Senate-developed tax regime for pass-through businesses, which include partnerships, sole proprietorships and other businesses that pay taxes through individual returns.
As a way to address concerns of lawmakers from high-tax states hurt by repeal of state and local individual income-tax deductions, they were also talking about setting the top individual tax rate lower than the House’s 39.6% level or the Senate’s 38.5% level…
Negotiators were leaning toward capping mortgage-interest deductions at loans of up to $750,000, according to GOP aides and lawmakers. That represented a middle ground between approaches taken by the House and the Senate.”
-Siobhan Hughes and Richard Rubin, “GOP Bridging Divide in House, Senate Tax Plans,” The Wall Street Journal online, Dec. 12, 2017 07:27pm