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Dec 3, 2017

Senate Passes Tax Reform – Individual Mandate Penalty Eliminated

Senate Passes Tax Reform

Early Saturday morning, the U.S. Senate passed tax reform along party lines, by a vote of 51 to 49. The Senate version of tax reform includes a 20 percent corporate rate, rate cuts for individuals, and in a last minute addition, retention of the state and local tax deduction. This legislation also includes the repeal of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As a reminder, under the ACA, each taxpayer is required to purchase minimum value health insurance coverage (subject to certain exemptions) or pay a penalty. Now the House and Senate must iron out the differences between… Read more


Nov 30, 2017

Senate Will Likely Vote on Tax Reform Late Today or Tomorrow: Individual Mandate Penalty Relief is Included

Tax Reform: Individual Mandate Penalty

According to multiple sources, the U.S. Senate is close to voting on tax reform either later today or in the morning. Absent any late defections, the bill is expected to pass the Senate through a strict party-line vote. While the final version of the bill is not yet set, at this time, the current version includes the elimination of the individual mandate penalty currently provided by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The House’s version of tax reform, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, passed on November 16th, does not include the elimination of the individual mandate penalty, although the House… Read more


Nov 17, 2017

House Approves Tax Bill: Senate Tax Bill Now Out of Committee

Tax Calculator

In the U.S. House, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ( H.R. 1) (the Act) was approved by a vote of 227-205 yesterday. The legislation lowers the top corporate rate of 35 percent to a flat 20 percent. On the individual side, the bill would collapse the existing seven income tax brackets to four with rates of 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent, and 39.6 percent, and would roughly double the standard deduction. The Act would also limit home mortgage interest deductions, cap state, and local property tax deductions and eliminate deductions for other state and local taxes, and double the… Read more


Jun 29, 2017

The Prospect of Estate Tax Repeal: What to Do Now

Estate Tax Repeal

With the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, the prospect of tax reform, and specifically repeal of the Federal estate tax has become more plausible. Repeal of the Federal estate and generation-skipping transfer tax was part of the “Blueprint” for tax reform announced by Republicans in June 2016. Predicting what will happen, when it will happen, and what form it will take are difficult.  If repeal occurs: Will repeal happen all at once, or be phased in? Will the gift tax also be repealed? Will repeal be “permanent?” Or will it “sunset,” much like… Read more