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Panel: Tax bill would cost $1.487 trillion over 10 years

by Niv Elis - 11/02/17 5:24 PM ET

The Republican tax proposal released Thursday would add $1.487 trillion to United States deficits over the course of a decade, according to an evaluation by the Joint Committee on Taxation.

That figure means the bill falls under the $1.5 trillion threshold Republicans set in the 2018 budget plan, which could allow them to pass the bill with a simple majority in the Senate instead of the usual 60 votes.

However, for the Senate procedure to allow the law’s provision to become permanent, the legislation cannot add to the debt after the first decade. The committee’s evaluation does not examine the cost of the bill after 10 years.

According to the committee, the plan would save some $929 billion from changes to individual taxation, and $846 billion in changes from corporate taxation in its first decade.

It also gave details on what some specific provisions of the bill would cost or add to federal budgets. {mosads}

For example, the bill found changes to the income tax structure would add about $1 trillion to the deficit over a decade, and nearly doubling the standard deduction would cost another $913 billion.

But eliminating personal exemptions would completely counter those moves, costing taxpayers almost $1.6 trillion.

A few provisions that Democrats have said overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy would add up to more than $1.3 trillion.

Lowering pass-through rates for “S-Corps” would provide a $448 billion tax break, repealing the alternative minimum tax would cost $695 billion, and limiting and then repealing the estate tax would cost $171.5 billion.

Tags Bill deficit Republicans Tax reform trillion