Senate Republican leaders release tax bill

Senate Finance Committee Chair Orin Hatch (R-UT) late yesterday released a draft of Senate Republicans’ proposal to overhaul the tax code. Unlike the House Republicans’ proposal, which passed the Ways and Means Committee yesterday on a party-line vote, the Senate proposal would not eliminate hospitals’ ability to access low-cost capital financing through tax-exempt private activity bonds and would not make changes to taxpayers’ ability to itemize deductions for large medical expenses. Both the House and Senate proposals would eliminate the ability of states to execute “advance refundings” of outstanding tax-exempt bonds and would impose a 20% excise tax on pay for certain employees of nonprofits. Neither bill currently contains a provision to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate to purchase health insurance. However, such a provision is still under consideration. The Senate Finance Committee’s markup of the draft is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET on Monday. The full House will also debate tax reform next week.