The following article by Niels Lesniewski and Joe Williams was posted on the Roll Call website December 13, 2017:
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch confirms
Senate and House Republicans have reached a broad agreement on a major overhaul of the U.S. tax code, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch said Wednesday.
As he was leaving for the White House, the Senate Finance Chairman confirmed the House and Senate have reached a deal on overhauling the tax code.
“We reached the agreement,” the Utah Republican told reporters.
Hatch said he planned to update President Donald Trump on the agreement when he reached the White House, declining to answer any questions about specifics, such as the final corporate tax rate or when exactly the deal was reached.
While Hatch himself was short on specifics, the contours of the agreement appeared to be in line with what has been discussed this week.
The compromise would set the corporate rate at 21 percent and set the top income tax rate at 37 percent, aides said. The corporate rate, while not quite the 20 percent pushed by Trump, would take effect in 2018 rather than in 2019 as had been proposed in the Senate bill.
It would also put the income deduction rate for pass-through businesses at 20 percent and allow up to a $750,000 mortgage interest deduction.
Hatch also did not say whether he and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, intended to announce the details while with the president.
Hatch also said he was confident there would be enough votes in each chamber to approve the conference report on the tax bill.
A compromise agreement reported earlier in the day on the pass-through tax was enough to win over Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
“If it’s married with 37 percent top rate it ends up being the same thing basically,” he said.
View the post here.