Thai gov. to tax (remitted) income from abroad for tax residents starting 2024 - Part II

[rooster59]

U.S. Senate Republicans lock up votes to pass tax bill: McConnell

By David Morgan and Amanda Becker

 

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) leaves the Senate floor during debate over the Republican tax reform plan in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans said on Friday they had gathered the votes needed to pass a sweeping tax overhaul, after last-minute negotiations to ease some senators' concerns about the bill's impact on the federal deficit, healthcare and property taxes.

 

On the brink of securing a badly needed victory, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters as he emerged from a morning meeting with colleagues: "We have the votes."

 

No formal text of the bill - still very much a work in progress - had been released just hours before a final vote, which was expected later on Friday. If approved, the Senate and the House of Representatives, which already has passed its own tax bill, would work together to craft a single measure to send to the White House for enactment.

 

President Donald Trump, who has played largely a cheerleading role in the tax debate, strongly backs tax cuts and was expected to sign a bill sent to him by the U.S. Congress.

 

Five Republican senators whose commitments had been in doubt announced on Friday they would back the bill: Steve Daines, Ron Johnson, Jeff Flake, James Lankford and Jerry Moran.

 

Senators Bob Corker and Susan Collins were the last holdouts as of mid-afternoon. Republican leaders said they were confident Collins would sign on eventually.

 

Details were sketchy but lawmakers said on Friday changes were being made to provisions dealing with the federal deduction for state and local property tax, a cut in the corporate income tax rate, the alternative minimum tax and a one-time tax on foreign profits held offshore by multinational corporations.

 

Gaining the support of the five additional senators gave the Republicans at least the 50 votes needed to pass the measure. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority over Democrats in the Senate and have Vice President Mike Pence to break any tie votes.

 

Democrats have been united in their opposition to the bill, calling it a giveaway to the wealthy and corporations.

 

"In the waning hours, this bill is tilting further towards businesses and away from families," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "Every time the choice is between corporations and families, the Republicans choose corporations.

 

"Today may be the first day of a new Republican Party - one that raises taxes on the middle class."

 

PRAISE FROM TRUMP

 

Trump, still looking for the first major legislative accomplishment of his presidency, praised fellow Republicans in Congress for their work in a Friday morning tweet and blamed Democrats for trying to derail the bill.

 

Led by McConnell and with Trump deeply involved, Republicans in July failed to dismantle the Obamacare health law after years of attacking the signature achievement of former Democratic President Barack Obama. That embarrassing debacle damaged McConnell's reputation and infuriated Trump.

 

The Republican tax bill would represent the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax system since the 1980s. Its success is seen by Republicans as crucial to their hopes of retaining control of Congress in the November 2018 elections.

 

Daines and Johnson announced their support for the bill on Friday after winning more tax relief for non-corporate pass-through businesses. These include partnerships and other companies not organised as public corporations, encompassing most American business enterprises from mom-and-pop concerns to large financial and real estate organizations.

 

The bill now features a 23 percent tax deduction for such business owners, up from the original 17.4 percent, according to statements from both senators.

 

In a statement, Flake said he had secured two objectives - eliminating an $85 billion "expensing budget gimmick" in the measure and winning a commitment to work with him on fair and permanent protections for illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.

 

Republicans also had been searching for a way to get Corker, a deficit hawk, on board. The legislation stalled late on Thursday when Senate rules prohibited adding a deficit-focused mechanism Corker had sought to add to the bill.

 

Collins said she had won an agreement to change the Senate bill so state and local property taxes would be deductible up to $10,000, mirroring legislation already passed by the House.

 

Collins also had pushed for concessions to minimize the impact on older and sicker Americans of a provision of the bill that would repeal part of the Obamacare health law.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-02

[Thakkar]

GOP’s List of Economists Backing Tax Cut Includes Ghosts, Office Assistants, Ex-Felons, and a Sprinkling of Real Economists

 

https://theintercept.com/2017/12/01/gops-list-of-economists-backing-tax-cut-includes-ghosts-office-assistants-ex-felons-and-a-sprinkling-of-real-economists/

 

Touting support for their tax cut legislation, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, released a letter this week signed by 137 economists who say they strongly endorse the Republican legislation before Congress. President Donald Trump on Friday afternoontweeted a short video featuring the list of 137 economists.

[silent]

4 hours ago, Thakkar said:

GOP’s List of Economists Backing Tax Cut Includes Ghosts, Office Assistants, Ex-Felons, and a Sprinkling of Real Economists

 

https://theintercept.com/2017/12/01/gops-list-of-economists-backing-tax-cut-includes-ghosts-office-assistants-ex-felons-and-a-sprinkling-of-real-economists/

 

Touting support for their tax cut legislation, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, released a letter this week signed by 137 economists who say they strongly endorse the Republican legislation before Congress. President Donald Trump on Friday afternoontweeted a short video featuring the list of 137 economists.

The Trump gang appears determined to becoming as legendary for helping the average American as the Barrow and James Gangs.

[IAMHERE]

Absolutely too much tax relief to the very rich in America.

[attrayant]

Here's Senator Tester being a bit testy that he was expected to vote on a 479-page bill just a few hours before it was handed to him.  The margins are full of hand-written scribbles, much of which is undecipherable.  Anyone want to guess what the encircled word is?

 

 

They're voting on something that can't even be read. 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2017 by attrayant
added link to tester's video

[dunroaming]

Well they must be delighted to get this through, a first for Trump!  Tax cuts for the rich and the middle class.  That should please his core supporters!

[ilostmypassword]

25 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

Well they must be delighted to get this through, a first for Trump!  Tax cuts for the rich and the middle class.  That should please his core supporters!

Minimal cuts for some of the middle class. Some will face higher taxes in the short term. In the long term virtually the entire middle class will face tax increases. Corporations though, and the very wealthy will have permanent tax cuts. The new face of trickle down economics: runoff from the swamp.

[Scott]

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