Newly formed Republican “tax teams” will study expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA, PL 115-97) tax cuts, said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Tax Subcommittee Chairman Mike Kelly (R-PA) on April 24.
Ten tax teams were established to focus on specific areas: manufacturing, working families, workforce, “Main Street,” “new economy,” rural America, community development, supply chains, US innovation, and global competitiveness. Each team is comprised of five or six Republican Ways & Means Committee members. The teams are tasked with examining expiring TCJA provisions and looking for “legislative solutions.”
“At hearings we’ve held across the country, the Ways and Means Committee has heard directly from workers, families, farmers, and small businesses who emphasized the urgent need for tax relief,” said Smith in a press release. “The mission of these Tax Teams will be to build on the success of the Trump tax cuts to provide a pro-America, pro-worker vision for the future and a much-needed alternative to President Biden’s $7 trillion tax hike.”
Some of the expiring provisions raised at recent hearings include the child tax credit, now at $2,000 per child maximum, which will be halved in 2025. In addition, the 199A deduction for pass-through business income will expire in 2025, subjecting pass-through business income to ordinary income tax rates. Marginal tax rates applied to taxable income, the standard deduction amount, and personal exemptions also will revert to pre-TCJA levels. And the estate and gift tax exclusion amount will be halved.
Ways and Means Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) declined to comment on the initiative. However, at an April 11 Ways and Means hearing, Neal criticized the TCJA tax cuts, saying “there is very little that is really flowed to average workers from those tax cuts.” Neal added “when you use the tax code to invest in those who need it most, we all benefit — workers, families, and our communities.” He called for more investment in childcare, paid leave, and other community services, saying “if workers and the middle class are actually priorities, let’s put them ahead of big corporations and billionaires.”
The Republican tax teams approach stands in contrast to past bipartisan efforts to examine tax law, including 2013 Ways and Means tax reform working groups and 2015 Senate Finance tax working groups.
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