Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, (D-N,Y.) will put the stalled Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act up for a vote later this week, Accounting Today reported.
The $78 billion bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives in January by a wide bipartisan margin of 357-70, with 188 Democrats and 169 Republicans voting in favor of it. The bill has since attracted opposition from Senate Republicans, so it is not expected to pass, but it may still attract some GOP support.
The bill would revive a number of tax breaks, including a scaled-back version of the enhanced Child Tax Credit, the ability to fully deduct research-and-development expenses in the first year, 100 percent bonus depreciation, disaster tax relief, improvements in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, interest expensing and a tax agreement with Taiwan, according to Accounting Today. It would increase the threshold for reporting income earned by an independent contractor from $600 to $1,000, with an adjustment to the increased amount for inflation. It would also increase penalties for aiding and abetting the understatement of tax liability with respect to the Employee Retention Tax Credit .
"Tonight, I am very happy to announce that I have just filed cloture on the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, a bill to expand the Child Tax Credit, expand the Affordable Housing Tax Credit, help small businesses with the R&D credit, and lift half a million kids out of poverty," Schumer said in a floor statement Monday night.
"The bipartisan tax package will be a boon for small businesses, because it will reward them and other businesses for investing in R&D and help them pay for new equipment so they can compete against larger competitors. This will inevitably mean more jobs for Americans,"he said. "“And of course, I’m very happy this tax package delivers big wins on something near and dear to my heart: affordable housing. The bill would expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, LIHTC, very significantly. The LIHTC is one of the most effective tools for increasing the supply of affordable housing units.”
The vote will take place just before Congress’ month-long August recess. The timing “[m]akes me wonder how sincere of an effort could this be if … we're going to run out of time to give a bill adequate consideration," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Hill. "I don't expect it to go anywhere.”