Republicans have a final deal on their tax bill — here’s what’s in it

Sen. Orrin Hatch, a conferee and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters the GOP members of the conference committee “got a pretty good deal.” The Republican members were scheduled to go to the White House to brief the president on the deal.

The Associated Press reported that the GOP conferees came to a preliminary agreement on the bill on Wednesday.

While the official text of the bill has not been released and would still need to be evaluated by congressional scorekeepers like the Joint Committee on Taxation, Republican leaders say they are aiming to hold a vote on the compromise bill on Monday and Tuesday. That could get the bill to Trump’s desk by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

While the TCJA’s passage is not guaranteed, the GOP has enough of a cushion to get the bill through both chambers, and Jones’ win is likely to light a political fire under the party to get it done.

Here’s a rundown of some of the big changes that are reportedly in the final agreement:

• A less generous corporate rate cut: Republicans may cut the corporate rate to 21% from the current federal rate of 35%, instead of the 20% proposed in both the house and Senate bills. The new rate would start in 2018.
• A lower top individual tax rate: The top individual bracket would drop to 37% instead of the 38.5% proposed in the Senate bill. It would still be down from the current 39.6%.
• Keep the estate tax, but raise the threshold to qualify: Instead of phasing out the estate tax over time, like the House bill, the compromise bill would instead simply increase the threshold for an estate to qualify — from $5.6 million to around $11 million. That aligns with the Senate bill.
• Repeal the corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT): The corporate AMT in the Senate bill was a sore spot for many companies because it would have negated the effects of many popular deductions and credits, like the research and development credit.
• Adjust the cap for the mortgage interest deduction: The current cap for the mortgage interest deduction of $1 million would be lowered to $750,000. This is higher than the House proposal which would have lowered the cap to $500,000. The Senate bill would have left the deduction unchanged.

In addition to the last-minute tweaks, the final bill is also likely to include large scale changes to the types of deduction individuals and businesses can take and other tax adjustments that were in the House and Senate bills.

Some of the proposed changes could earn pushback from Republicans. Changes to healthcare provisions have prompted complains from GOP Sen. Susan Collins, and Sen. Marco Rubio also made noise on Twitter about not making the child tax credit more generous in the compromise bill.

“20.94% Corp. rate to pay for tax cut for working family making $40k was anti-growth but 21% to cut tax for couples making $1 million is fine?” Rubio tweeted on Tuesday.

The Florida Republican pushed for an amendment to be added to the original Senate TCJA that would have made the child tax credit refundable, but it was defeated.

Republicans can only afford two defections in the Senate for the bill to pass. Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, voted against the original version of the legislation when it moved through the chamber.