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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is coming out in support of a bipartisan tax deal scheduled for a vote later on Wednesday. "The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act is important bipartisan legislation to revive conservative pro-growth tax reform," Johnson said in a statement. "Crucially, the bill also ends a wasteful COVID-era program, saving taxpayers tens of billions of dollars." "Chairman Smith deserves great credit for bringing this bipartisan bill through committee with a strong vote of confidence, and for marking up related bills under regular order earlier in this Congress. This bottom-up process is a good example...

We’ll say it again now that Gov. Jared Polis has inked his purported “relief” for soaring property taxes: His plan is largely an illusion. Ignore the stagecraft of Wednesday’s signing ceremony for Senate Bill 23-303. It was a nice publicity stunt — the governor and assorted lawmakers turning up at the home of a Commerce City resident who supposedly would benefit. It was all sleight of hand. As we noted here only weeks ago, the Polis plan is as if someone offered to help you pay your bills — then reached into your pocket, grabbed your wallet, pulled out some...

CHICAGO -- A Chicago family said their latest property tax bill increased 440% and now their modest apartment complex could go bankrupt. A one bedroom apartment will now cost Michael Markellos $17,494 in property taxes for one year. "This has put us in a tremendous financial bind, the building has gone negative in the bills," he said. He and his mother own the 10-unit Lincoln Park apartment complex. Last year's tax bill for all 10 units combined was $23,674, but now the same 10 units are $128,282 dollars this year; up 440%. "I was outraged. These are basically simple one...

John Paulson won fame after he made one of the greatest financial bets of all time. What comes next? One of the largest-ever personal tax bills. By April 17, the hedge-fund manager must make federal and state tax payments of about $1 billion, on top of roughly $500 million in taxes he paid late last year, said people close to the firm. That sum is so big it dwarfs the maximum amount the Internal Revenue Service will allow any single taxpayer to pay with a single check. (That’s $99,999,999, in case you’re wondering.) Mr. Paulson bet big against subprime mortgages...

Allow me to confess that I’ve been right out there with the best of them (or is it the worst?) when it comes to high-fiving and back-slapping over the positive results of the tax cuts enacted before Christmas. Businesses are hiring, handing out bonuses and onshoring capital. Workers are seeing more money in their paychecks and will see significant benefits when they file their taxes next year. Yes, there is plenty to celebrate, but there’s also a second, far less pleasant reality to contemplate.As the WaPo reports this weekend, the federal government is now on track to borrow a massive...

Well, when you’re backed into a corner, there really is nowhere to go. That’s where the Democrats are on this tax bill. Even after they shut down the government over illegal aliens, companies continued to signal their intention to dole out bonuses to their workers. In all, over 250 companies have given out bonuses to over three million workers. Bonuses have ranged from $1,000 to $3,000 depending on the company. The tax plan has become more popular as well. So, what do Democrats do now? Well, just marginalize $1,000+ bonuses as “crumbs.”Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has done it, with Rep....

The Democrats’ lead over Republicans on a generic 2018 election ballot has narrowed, a new poll has found. According to a CNN survey, Democrats have a 5-point lead, with 49 percent of respondents saying they’d support Democrats on a generic congressional ballot. Forty-four percent of registered voters said they’d support Republicans. The latest poll narrows the 18-point lead Democrats held over Republicans when the survey was conducted in December, at which point 56 percent of respondents said they’d choose Democrats while 38 percent said they’d vote for the Republican candidate. The survey comes as support for the Republican tax law...

Way back in 1980, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and making numerous other land use decisions for our 49th state. Section 1002 of the act postponed a decision on managing ANWR’s 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, which has enormous oil and gas potential and is important summertime wildlife habitat.For four decades, environmentalists blocked legislation that would have opened the coastal plain to leasing and drilling. In 1995 President Clinton vetoed a pro-drilling bill that had passed both houses.At long last, the tax-cut legislation just passed by Congress allows America to benefit from...

It’s done. The GOP has passed the most extensive tax reform in the past three decades. The $1.5 trillion cut will benefit America’s working and middle classes. Republicans united, stuck to their guns, and passed it without help from the Democrats, who were not going to lift a finger to help the Trump White House get a key part of its agenda passed. In doing so, they betted against the American worker and hoped that millions of families get screwed to score political points. They thought this bill was Armageddon. It was not. It’ll benefit anywhere from 80-90 percent of...

Under an all caps Merry Christmas Glenn Reynolds alerts us to the Senate GOP tweet that embeds an interesting report from CBS News (below). In the spirit of the day, it carries tidings of good cheer. CBS checked in with three families of varying means to ascertain the effect of the tax bill enacted last week. I was particularly interested in the impressions each of them had. A single mother making $40,000 with one kid observed: “It didn’t seem as they were going along that it would really affect someone like me.” The wife in a couple making $150,00 with...

Well, Democratic spin surely has the middle class skeptical of the Republican tax bill. On Friday, President Trump signed the most extensive tax reform in 30 years. It was framed as a giveaway to the wealthy and something akin to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by congressional Democrats. Not a single Democrat voted for the bill. In reality, itÂ’s a middle class tax cut. Eighty percent of Americans for at least the next eight years will be paying less. The analysis says it. And now CBS News spoke to three families from Providence, Rhode Island, Fresno, California, and Cary,...

The people who collect taxes in New York are acting fast to help taxpayers try to get ahead of a pitfall for homeowners in the new federal tax overhaul. The tax bill, which passed earlier this week, is confusing. Here's what we know: The bill will no longer allow taxpayers to deduct more than $10,000 in state and local income and property taxes from their federal income taxes. At the same time, it doubles the standard deduction to $12,000 for a single taxpayer and $24,000 for a family. That means more people will no longer itemize their taxes. But...

This week, Congress passed a historic tax cut bill that will grow the economy and give millions of American families a raise. It was an incredible victory. House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and President Trump all deserve a lot of credit for getting this done. But unfortunately, amidst the excitement over the passage of this fantastic legislation, one unfortunate development went nearly unreported: Democrats are so fiercely partisan that they went out of their way to victimize homeschooled kids, children with disabilities, and their parents. And the worst part? They succeeded. Here’s what happened: Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the...

Before we get into the real estate ramifications portion of the GOP tax bill, let us recall and reiterate the fact that zero Democrats voted for a tax plan that cuts the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% to make American corporations more competitive and bring more taxable income home, simplifies the tax code and eliminates some deductions, trims other deductions, and does away with a personal exemption, all of which would result in around 48% of U.S. households receiving tax relief of at least $500, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The GOP tax bill has now...

You might say, another Morning Joe, another Apocalypse Now moment over President Trump. But check out the video montage I’ve created of the opening segment of today’s show. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski lead the panel in an utter meltdown over the praise that Republican congressmen directed at President Trump at a White House ceremony yesterday celebrating the passage of the tax bill. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

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As Guy wrote, this tax reform bill, the most extensive in 30 years, is a tax cut for the middle class. It will create a better job creating and investing climate. Even The Washington Post noted that for 80 percent of Americans, they’re getting a tax cut, contrary to the Democratic warnings that this is Armageddon. Right now, they’re confident that this bill will sink Republicans in the midterms. They see the polling. Yeah, it’s bad, but it can only get better—and we’re still many, many months away from the midterm elections. A lot can happen in the interim. So,...

GOP tax plan could lead companies to curb shifting of profits abroad—and could satisfy Trump’s protectionist instincts. Besides tax reform, one of President Donald Trump’s most cherished goals is reducing the gaping U.S. trade deficit. In a little-appreciated way, the tax bill expected to pass Congress this week may do just that. This wouldn’t come by making businesses and workers more productive or changing other countries’ trade practices, but by curbing the incentive for multinational companies to artificially shift profits abroad... CLICK RELATED VIDEO LINK AT WSJ TRUNCATED ARTICLE FOR FURTHER DETAILS

The GOP’s tax reform bill passed through the House of Representatives for the second time this week on Wednesday by a vote of 224-201. Once passed by the Senate, the bill will be sent to President’s Trump’s desk. It will be the largest legislative achievement of the almost one-year long presidency that no one saw coming. “Today, Congress approved a once-in-a-generation tax reform bill. This is the end of a long journey to deliver major tax relief to the American people,” House Speaker Paul Ryan stated. While Democrats and the mainstream media continue to call this move by the Republicans...

Polls show most Americans, including most small business owners, do oppose the Republican bill overhauling the tax code, and believe the changes will disproportionately help large corporations and the rich. But four of the five small business owners I spoke with for this piece lauded the bill, especially the provision allowing companies to immediately write off the costs of new investments in equipment and buildings. “This is huge for my business,” Ray Blum, who owns a Dairy Queen franchise in Grant County, W. Va., said of the equipment write off. Blum broke down his business’s tight financial situation. Blum’s net...