The President’s Budget: Reports of deep, huge cuts. Leaks ahead of today’s budget release say that President Trump will propose $600 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next 10 years, as well a $193 billion reduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka Food Stamps). He may also propose cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. A key to Trump’s proposal: Tax cuts that he says will result in an explosion of economic growth and balance the budget within a decade.
Cuts to refundable tax credits? While the President’s fiscal plan is expected to highlight big tax cuts, it may propose scaling back the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit by $40 billion over 10 years. It is not expected to include many other new details of the President’s tax plan.
Remember that FAFSA-IRS data breach? IRS officials discovered a vulnerability in the federal student loan program’s online application in the fall of 2016, and suspended the tool in March to prevent taxpayer identification from being stolen. Back in September, a private investigator used a Social Security number to create a FAFSA user identification. The number he used? It was alleged by hacktivist group Anonymous to belong to then-candidate Donald Trump. The private investigator has been arrested.
US Supreme Court upholds Michigan’s business tax changes. IBM, Goodyear, and other businesses sought more than $1 billion in tax refunds from the state, arguing that Michigan’s retroactive changes to business tax laws were illegal. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling and rejected their companies’ challenge.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been tweeting about taxes. “Republicans did not run on a gas tax increase,” he wrote, “so they should not pass one in this budget.” He reminded party lawmakers that they ran on promises to lower taxes and “need to keep that pledge.” And he vows to veto any budget that raises property taxes.
China takes a sugar tariff to whole new level. Citing the impact of imports on the nation’s sugar producers, the government has nearly doubled the tax on sugar imports from 50 percent to 95 percent. The rate would apply to imports of more than 1.95 million tons per year though it would gradually decline to 85% after two years. The tax on the first 1.95 million tons of imported sugar remains 15 percent.
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