Highway Trust Fund

: TaxVox

Compromises, Delays, Derivatives and Daze

A highway bill could soon head down Pennsylvania Avenue. The House Rules Committee plans to send to the floor the Ways & Means panel’s short-term highway funding bill today. After a floor vote sometime this week, it’s seen as the likely version to land on the President’s desk. In the Senate,

July 14, 2014Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Games, Spins, Ignorance and Patience

Congress keeps playing with the Highway Trust Fund—but why? The House Ways & Means Committee approved its effort to fund the Highway Trust Fund through May, 2015. To reach a bipartisan deal, the Senate Finance Committee ultimately took a slightly different approach in a $10.8 billion proposal

July 11, 2014Renu Zaretsky

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Is It Time To End The Highway Trust Fund Fiction?

Congress is in the midst of another Perils of Pauline political showdown: This time the drama is over how to finance the highway trust fund, which will be unable to pay its bills in a couple of weeks. House Republicans have cooked up one set of gimmicks to keep the money flowing for a few months.

July 10, 2014Howard Gleckman

: TaxVox

Pensions and Tax Bases: Realities and Hopes

The thing about pension smoothing: The bumps always come back. Neither the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget nor TPC’s Len Burman will suspend disbelief when it comes to the latest gimmick to patch the Highway Trust Fund. Maybe “stupid tax tricks” work politically but “pretending to raise

July 10, 2014Renu Zaretsky

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

“Pension Smoothing” is a Sham

Pity House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp. He wants to rewrite the tax code in a serious way, but instead he’s spending his days trying to come up with imaginary revenue sources to pay for important spending priorities like rebuilding our crumbling highways. Tomorrow, his committee

July 9, 2014Leonard E. Burman

: TaxVox

Whither the Highway Trust Fund?

Smoothing pensions to fund highways: A bumpy, short road. The House Ways & Means Committee will include “ pension smoothing ” in a $10.9 billion highway funding bill to be marked up tomorrow . In 2012 lawmakers covered two years of highway and transit funding by allowing employers to delay tax-

July 9, 2014Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Multinational Machinations, Big Soda, and the Phone

Maybe Chicago is not their kind of town. Five Chicagoans, all Walgreen board members, need to decide whether to pack up and move the company’s headquarters to Europe. Walgreen is in the second stage of its merger with Swiss-based Alliance Boots that could slash Walgreen’s tax bill by over $780

July 8, 2014Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Highways, Pensions, Deficits and Reform: A Long and Winding Road

“Are we there yet?” It’s just a little (or a lot) further for the federal Highway Trust Fund . Congress just left for a week-long recess, leaving the Highway Trust Fund nearly empty . The Senate Finance Committee didn’t support Chairman Ron Wyden’s $9 billion tax-raising patch, in spite of Wyden’s

June 27, 2014Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Tax Changes for Highways, Delays and Missing Links

The Senate Finance Committee takes their turn as “The Highway Men.” They’ll consider tax changes for more highway funds tomorrow with Chairman Ron Wyden's bill to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through the end of the year. The plan would raise $9 billion in tax revenue over ten years. Tax code

June 25, 2014Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Revenues, ‘Rithmetic, and the Power of Magical Thinking

What’s a nation to do with as-yet-untaxed US multinational corporate income? The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyzes what a repatriation tax holiday might mean for the US economy. In short: it wouldn’t help. The Business Roundtable , a group of corporate chief executives, doesn’t want

June 20, 2014Renu Zaretsky