Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to make permanent several tax provisions that were enacted in 2017 and are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.
The bill makes permanent provisions that:
reduce individual tax rates,
modify the taxation of the unearned income of children,
allow a deduction for qualified business income of pass-through entities,
increase the standard deduction,
increase and modify the child tax credit,
increase the limitation for certain charitable contributions,
allow additional contributions to ABLE accounts (tax-favored accounts designed to enable individuals with disabilities to save for and pay for disability-related expenses),
allow certain members of the Armed Forces in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt to receive combat zone tax benefits,
exclude from gross income discharges of student loan debt due to the death or disability of the student,
repeal the deduction for personal exemptions,
limit individual deductions for state and local taxes,
limit the mortgage interest deduction,
double the estate and gift tax exemption amount,
increase the alternative minimum tax exemption amount for individuals, and
repeal or limit several other deductions and exclusions.
The bill also:
extends through 2020 the reduction in the adjusted gross income threshold for the medical expense deduction,
modifies the capital gains tax brackets, and
modifies tax filing requirements for married taxpayers.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House with amendment(s)" stage on September 24, 2018. 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 October 1, 2018: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- 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 115th Congress (2017-18), 442 of the 11,421 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.9 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?
Rodney Davis (R-IL) introduced it on September 10, 2018, and 40 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 40 Republicans.
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 September 10, 2018, 2922 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2901 days ago, on October 1, 2018.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 115th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2019 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