How Does One Avoid Tax Increases? Let Us Count Some Ways.

The corporate-only tax reform could raise taxes on many small businesses, unless… TPC’s Eric Toder testified last week to the House Small Business Committee on how  corporate tax reform could hurt small businesses that usually report income on their owner’s individual tax returns. In his latest blog post, he explains his recommendation to soften the blow by targeting tax preferences such as expensing capital investment to small, pass-through businesses. He also warns against enacting special rates for all pass-through income.

Will big British banks bolt because of bank tax bump? HSBC and Standard Chartered together face a $2 billion tax bill in 2015 under the United Kingdom’s annual bank tax. Last year they owed $1.5 billion, nearly twice what they paid in 2013. The banks make most of their profits in Asia, and may decide that continent provides a tax-friendlier home.

Will Ohio House Republicans give in on a cigarette tax increase? GOP Governor John Kasich, perhaps a Presidential hopeful, wants a $5.7 billion, 23 percent income tax cut. But the GOP-controlled Ohio House has scrapped and replaced his plan, which included a dollar-per-pack increase to the cigarette tax. The tax has been $1.25 per pack for the past decade. Ohio has the eighth-highest smoking rate in the nation, and its tobacco-related health-care costs top $5.6 billion a year. House Republicans have eliminated the cigarette tax increase from their proposed budget, but are meeting strong resistance from anti-smoking advocates.

Today on the Hill. The House-Senate budget conference will kick off today and lawmakers will try to  hash out differences between the GOP proposals.  One key decision: whether to use the budget process to pass other bills, such as tax or entitlement reform or repeal of the Affordable Care Act. House members are pushing for broad use of budget reconciliation. Senate Republicans want to be more cautious and perhaps limit the process to trying for ACA repeal.

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