Tax Consistency Act
Latest action. Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means.
Tax Consistency Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to reduce corporate tax rates to 16 percent of the first $25,000 of taxable income and 18 percent of so much of the taxable income that exceeds $25,000. Reduces the surtax to 22 percent of the amount that exceeds the surtax exemption. Establishes a permanent $50,000 surtax exemption for all corporations except certain controlled corporations. Repeals the investment tax credit. Repeals the provision excluding from gross income interest on the obligations of a State, a territory, or a possession of the United States, or their political subdivisions, or of the District of Columbia. Eliminates the declining balance and sum-of-the years-digit methods of computing allowable depreciation expense. Limits deductions for such depreciation to amounts determined by a replacement cost straight line method, as formulated by this Act, or by any other consistent method which does not yield an amount which exceeds the total amount allowed under the replacement cost straight line method during the first two-thirds of the property's useful life. Repeals the allowance for deductions with respect to the amortization of any certified pollution control facility based on a period of 60 months. Repeals the allowance for deductions of intangible drilling and development costs for oil and gas wells. States that the last taxable year in which financial institutions may use the percentage method of computing additions to bad debt reserves shall be the taxable year beginning before 1979 instead of 1988 as is currently provided. Repeals the existing percentages allowed for depletion of mines, wells, and specified natural deposits, and the percentages allowed for oil and gas wells. Specifies those treatment processes for mineral deposits which are considered mining, and those which are not so considered, for the purposes of the percentage depletion allowance. Repeals special capital gains treatment of income from certain timber, coal, or iron ore operations. Repeals the allowance for special deductions for domestic corporations which do business in North, Central, or South America, or in the West Indies, and derive a certain percentage of their gross income from outside the United States. Repeals provisions allowing special tax treatment for Domestic International Sales Corporations (DISC). Repeals provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 which permit domestic shipping companies to exclude from gross income amounts deposited in the capital construction fund for the purpose of building new vessels. Establishes a tax credit for contributions to an employee stock ownership plan. Limits such credit to one half of one percent of the taxpayer's liability for the taxable year. Sets forth requirements for the establishment of such plans.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on April 18, 1978. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on April 18, 1978: Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 95th Congress (1977-78), 633 of the 19,387 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
DAVID STOCKMAN (R-MI) introduced it on April 18, 1978. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 18, 1978, 17677 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 17677 days ago, on April 18, 1978.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 95th Congress has not finished by January 3, 1979 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers