Biden Signs $1.9 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill Into Law – Jad Chamseddine, Tax Notes. “President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package a day earlier than expected, clearing the way for stimulus payments to start showing up in Americans’ bank accounts.
“To pay for expanding refundable credits such as the child tax credit and earned income tax credit, Democrats raised taxes in several areas. A one-year extension of the limitation on excess business losses of noncorporate taxpayers will raise $31 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation
Repealing the worldwide interest allocation rules will raise another $22.3 billion from 2021 to 2031, and eliminating a deduction for public companies’ eight highest-paid employees will raise more than $7.8 billion over 10 years, the JCT estimates.”
House gives final approval to $1.9 trillion pandemic aid bill - Ken Tysiac and Jeff Drew, Journal of Accountancy. “President Joe Biden on Thursday afternoon signed into law the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill known as the American Rescue Plan Act, following a 220-211 vote of approval by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.”
White House says some could get $1,400 payments by weekend – Naomi Jagoda, The Hill. “White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that people could start receiving $1,400 direct payments in their bank accounts as soon as this weekend, after President Biden signed the legislation authorizing the payments earlier in the afternoon.”
TPC Releases A New Distributional Analysis Of The Pandemic Relief Bill – Howard Gleckman, TaxVox. “The Tax Policy Center has published a new distributional analysis the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that incorporates several relatively minor tax provisions that were not included in TPC’s original estimates. The latest analysis shows slightly larger tax cuts for most households.”
States And Cities Make A Financial Killing – Milton Ezrati, Forbes. “To be sure, fighting the pandemic has cost them a lot, in lost taxes and by increasing expenses, mostly for social services. But more than compensating for these burdens is the tsunami of money Washington has laid on them. And it looks like there is still more on the way with the next Covid relief package. States and cities clearly have gained greatly the expense of the federal taxpayer.”
The child care tax credit is a good claim on 2020 taxes, even better for 2021 returns – Kay Bell, Don’t Mess With Taxes. “President Joe Biden today (March 11) signed into law the latest coronavirus relief measure, the American Rescue Plan. Most of the attention on the measure has been on the next round of relief payments that are part of the new law. It also contains a variety of tax changes, including one that will help with this upcoming summer's day camp costs when parents file tax returns next year.”
IRS Still Gaining or Lagging, Depending on Tax Season Time Frame – William Hoffman, Tax Notes($). “The IRS has again released two sets of 2021 filing season statistics with differing perspectives on tax agency performance depending on when one starts to count.
“According to one set of statistics, in 22 days the IRS has received 55.7 million — or 11.7 percent more — individual tax returns, and processed 48.9 million — or 1.9 percent more — through March 5, compared with the 26 days of the last filing season through February 21, 2020, it showed in one of two filing season performance tables issued March 11.
According to the second, less favorable set of statistics, however, the IRS received 18.1 percent fewer returns, and processed 24.7 percent fewer, in the first 22 days of the 2021 filing season through March 5, compared with the first 40 days of the 2020 season ending March 6, 2020.”
IRS Has Paid Out 36 Million Tax Refunds, Stimulus Checks Coming Soon – Ashlea Ebeling, Forbes. “The Internal Revenue Service is cranking out tax refunds: More than 36 million individual tax refunds have been issued so far, according to 2021 tax filing season statistics published today. Next on the agenda: Sending out Round 3 stimulus payments.”
Hawaii Senate approves nation’s highest income tax rate – Audrey Mcavoy, AP News. “The Hawaii Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would increase the income tax paid by Hawaii’s top wage earners to 16%, which would give the islands the highest state income tax rate in the nation.”
Wurst case: Burglar caught over bite from German’s sausage – AP News. “German police say they have solved a nine-year-old burglary after DNA found on a half-eaten piece of sausage matched that of a man detained in France over an unrelated crime.”
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