Latest news with #TaxCuts&JobsAct
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AICPA opposes limitations on tax deductions
The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has reiterated its stance against the proposed limitations on state and local tax (SALT) deductions for specified service trades or businesses (SSTBs) in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The body sent a second letter to the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means Committees highlighting the need for modifications to the 'troubling' tax proposals. In the letter, the AICPA said: 'We are sensitive to the challenges in drafting a budget reconciliation bill that permanently extends tax provisions, enhances tax administrability, and balances the interests of individual and business taxpayers. 'While we support portions of the legislation, we do have significant concerns regarding several provisions in the bill, including one which threatens to severely limit the deductibility of SALT by certain businesses. This outcome is contrary to the intentions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is to strengthen small businesses and enhance small business relief.' The AICPA called for an allowance for business entities, including SSTBs, to deduct SALT paid or accrued in trade or business activities. This move aligns with the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act's original intent and has been sanctioned by the Internal Revenue Service. The current House version of the bill is criticised for unfairly targeting SSTBs by restricting their SALT deduction capabilities. The AICPA also addressed the risks of contingent fee arrangements in tax preparation, suggesting they could lead to abuse. They recommended removing an amendment that could permanently disallow business losses without offsetting business income. The letter warned against laws that financially harm businesses and discourage professional service-based business formation. The AICPA supported provisions in the bill, such as using section 529 plan funds for credential expenses, tax relief for natural disaster-affected individuals and businesses, and making the qualified business income deduction permanent. They also advocated for the preservation of the cash method of accounting and increasing the Form 1099-K reporting threshold. In addition, the AICPA endorsed permanent extensions of international tax rates and provisions that offer greater certainty and clarity. It also shared a list of endorsed legislation, principles of good tax policy, and a compendium of proposals for simplifying and technically amending the Internal Revenue Code. AICPA Tax Policy & Advocacy vice-president Melanie Lauridsen said: 'While we are grateful to Congress for many provisions in this bill, the unfair targeting of certain types of businesses creates inefficiencies in business decision-making and could result in negative, long-lasting impacts on the economy. 'We hope that Congress will consider our recommendations and make the necessary changes that will create parity between all businesses.' Earlier in May 2025, the AICPA submitted comments to the US Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service on proposed regulations concerning previously taxed earnings and profits and related basis adjustments. "AICPA opposes limitations on tax deductions" was originally created and published by The Accountant, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Estate, Charitable Planning For Stock Options, RSUs, And Company Stock
For those who are fortunate enough to accumulate wealth, passing it along to future generations and donating it to charitable causes are important and laudable financial goals. However, you face a unique set of planning considerations if a large portion of your wealth comes from stock compensation: stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units (RSUs), ESPPs, other types of equity awards, and holdings of company shares. A recent webinar that I moderated featured a trio of experts in this complex planning niche. In this article, I present some of the knowledge and insights they shared. Tax-law changes may be coming soon, as the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA) is set to expire at the end of 2025 and Congress is working on a tax plan. However, the TCJA's provisions on the exemption amounts for estate tax and gift tax do not affect the core strategies in this type of planning. The strategies outlined below will persist whether the TCJA is extended or not. Webinar panelist David Haughton, Senior Corporate Counsel at started the webinar by going over the core legal tools involved in estate and charitable planning. Beyond your will, these include trusts and beneficiary designations. A revocable trust, also known as a living trust, acts as a bucket that you fill with your assets. It can help you avoid probate, among many other benefits. As it is revocable, it can be freely amended during your lifetime. By contrast, he went on, an irrevocable trust is a type of trust that can't be modified, amended, or revoked by the grantor once it has been created and funded. An irrevocable trust provides potential tax advantages and asset protection—but you have to be very certain about your decisions. Unlike a will, which does not take effect until you pass, a trust is active on the day of its creation. Assets that you can put into a trust include not only company stock but also equity grants, such as restricted stock units (RSUs) or nonqualified stock options (NQSOs), depending on the terms of your grant agreement and the company's stock plan, which could restrict your ability to transfer equity grants. Alert: Become familiar with limits specified in your stock grants on transferring stock options and unvested stock grants to trusts and for donations. Your company may generally allow transfers while you are living or only to certain types of family trusts. Any transfer does not change the timing of the tax treatment at exercise or vesting. The income will still be recognized by the executive or employee who received the grant. Another estate-planning tool Haughton discussed is the beneficiary designation, in which you leave assets to a beneficiary at death outside the probate process. For stock 'you set that up directly through a financial institution,' he explained. Often this is commonly done with 401(k) plans, IRAs, and brokerage accounts. Depending on the terms of your company's stock plan and procedures, you may be able to designate a beneficiary for your equity awards, such as RSUs or NQSOs. Alert: When you later receive the underlying shares from the RSU vesting, option exercise, or ESPP purchase, the account those shares go into at your brokerage firm will have its own separate forms for beneficiary designation. The beneficiary designations you may have designed for your stock grants do not then automatically apply to the actual shares you receive. The company's stock plan will have provisions dictating what happens to your outstanding equity awards if you die. For example, unvested stock options and RSUs may be forfeited. However, it's not uncommon for the grant agreement to instead allow vesting to continue or even to accelerate the vesting and, for options, extend the exercise period for vested options. Therefore, your heirs, executor, trustees, and beneficiaries need to be familiar with rules for each grant received. For gifting and wealth transfer during your lifetime, tax planning is a major issue, along with your personal cash needs. This was a topic discussed by webinar panelist Mani Mahadevan, the CEO of the firm Valur, a firm that offers resources and strategies on tax planning and estate planning. You can gift a certain amount to other people annually while you are living or at death before triggering gift and estate taxes, Mahadevan explained. In 2025, you may make annual gifts of up to $19,000 ($38,000 if made with a spouse) to any individual without either affecting a portion of your lifetime exemption or paying gift tax. Once you go over that yearly amount, your exemption for gift and estate tax is reduced. When the excess goes over your lifetime gift-tax exemption, you have to pay gift tax. The yearly amounts are indexed for inflation, and amounts over the exemption threshold are taxed at 40%. In 2018, the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act doubled the estate-tax exemption. In 2025, the exemption is $13.99 million for unmarried taxpayers and $27.98 million for married taxpayers. However, the TCJA is currently set to expire in after 2025. If Congress does not extend the tax law, the exemption could return in 2026 to the much lower levels that were in effect before the TCJA. Your state may also have rules on estate tax and inheritance tax to know. With gifts of assets, such as company stock, the tax basis and holding period carry forward. This lifetime gifting is a strategy for all income levels, including gifting shares to those that would have a lower tax rate than you do on capital gains when they sell the stock. Alert: Be familiar with the kiddie-tax rules before gifting shares to your children to then sell. Except for smaller gifts 'you want to gift to trusts rather than individuals,' Mahadevan emphasized. The benefits of giving to an irrevocable trust include advantages in estate tax and even income tax, some ongoing control over how the assets are used, asset protection, and privacy. 'You really want to focus on gifting assets that you expect to appreciate significantly,' Mahadevan continued. This is because at their current value they will use up less of your estate-tax exemption than they will in the future. 'If you gift them sooner, the appreciation happens outside of your estate.' Gift high-tax-basis assets, Mahadevan recommended, and keep low-basis assets. 'When you sell appreciated assets, how much are you going to owe in capital-gains taxes? That's entirely tied to the basis. You typically gift high-basis assets to a trust for your kids.' Why continue to hold the low-basis stock and not put it into an irrevocable trust? For the stock not in that type of trust, after you die your estate or beneficiaries receive a 'step-up' in the tax basis of the shares to the market value of the stock at the time of your death. Therefore, when the company shares are sold, the appreciation in the shares that occurred between your acquisition of the stock and your death would not be taxed to the estate or beneficiary for income-tax purposes. This results in less capital-gains tax for the company stock that appreciated before your death. On the other hand, if you gift those assets to your kids before you pass away, they won't receive a step-up in basis and will owe capital-gains tax on all the appreciation. 'This is a really powerful way for your heirs to inherit and sell appreciated assets and avoid capital-gains tax when they sell the stock,' Mahadevan observed. Webinar panelist John Nersesian, Head of Advisor Education for US Global Wealth Management at PIMCO, went through the many strategies and vehicles for making charitable donations of company stock that you hold. He emphasized first that donating stock held for at least one year is much more tax-efficient than selling the stock and then gifting the cash proceeds, as you get a tax deduction for the fair market value at the time of the stock donation. 'Appreciated investments are a very tax-efficient way to give,' he noted. 'You can avoid the capital gains that would otherwise be realized at the time of sale.' Alert: Donating and gifting company shares are dispositions under special holding-period rules for ISO stock and tax-qualified ESPP stock. The holding period is two years from grant and one year from exercise/purchase. Selling or transferring the stock before the holding period is met triggers a disqualifying disposition. Donation vehicles for company stock that Nersesian discussed include the following. A donor-advised fund (DAF), Nersesian explained, is a private account that you create to manage and distribute charitable donations. When you give to a DAF, such as donating company stock, that amount is eligible for the charitable deduction on your tax return without the need at that point (or perhaps ever) to pick the nonprofits receiving the funds. When you're making a very large donation of appreciated stock to a DAF (or to any charity directly), the tax deduction is limited to 30% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) per year, and you can carry forward what's not used on that year's tax return for five years. Appreciation within a DAF is not taxable. When you itemize deductions on Schedule A of your federal tax return, the DAF 'facilitates the bunching of deductions for maximum tax benefit.' Lastly, there are 'no wash-sale implications—the stock can be repurchased immediately to maintain exposure with higher cost basis.' A CRT is an irrevocable split-interest trust that provides an income stream to designated beneficiaries (donor, spouse, family member) for a defined period (maximum 20 years) or for life. The remaining assets are distributed to designated charities at the end of the term, including DAFs. 'CRTs are suitable for concentrated and highly appreciated assets, such as company stock,' asserted Nersesian. There are many tax benefits. You, the donor, receive a reduced income-tax deduction upon funding. You achieve diversification with deferral of capital-gain recognition and remove assets from your taxable estate. 'A CLT is an irrevocable trust funded with donor assets that provides an annual income stream to a charitable organization for a pre-determined term or life of donor,' Nersesian observed. There is no minimum or maximum. 'The remainder is distributed to the donor's family members or to other noncharitable designated beneficiaries at the end of the term.' Benefits include charitable cash flow and reduced inheritance taxes. Webinar panelist Mani Mahadevan of Valur continued with some strategies and vehicles for estate planning and wealth transfer. They included the following two specialized types of trusts for company stock, including ways in which founders of startups can use them for QSBS stock. 'Particularly if the company is publicly traded and therefore easy to value, consider gifting stock to a GRAT,' said Mahadevan. A GRAT freezes a portion of an estate's value while shifting asset appreciation to beneficiaries. The grantor gives up control of the assets for the term of the trust while receiving a regular annuity payment. At the conclusion of the GRAT term, remaining assets in the trust pass to heirs free of gift tax and estate tax. The trust can be structured so that the grantor does not use any of their lifetime exclusion for gift tax and estate tax. You can transfer any type of financial asset to a GRAT. 'GRATs are one of the most powerful estate-tax strategies, and they're very well suited for public stock positions and become more favorable as interest rates lower,' observed Mahadevan. This is, according to Mahadevan, 'the most common, complex, and potentially impactful estate-planning trust.' The IDGT is an irrevocable trust that removes assets from the grantor's estate but keeps the grantor as the income-tax owner. Therefore, trust assets avoid estate taxes on appreciation. The IDGT is popular, he continued, because of its overall estate-tax efficiency. It allows you to personally pay the trust's income taxes without using up your gift-tax exemption and allows the trust assets to grow tax-free outside your estate. 'If the stock is privately held, it should receive substantial valuation discounts relative to enterprise value.' Specifically, Mani continued, an IDGT is 'for people who expect to be significantly over the estate-tax-exemption amount and want to pass on assets to future generations.' The webinar in which these experts spoke is available on demand at the myStockOptions Webinar Channel. Other resources on gifts and donations, estate planning, and death taxes with equity awards and company stock are available at the website
Forbes
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Removing The Tax On Sex Abuse Victims: Legislation to Undo Unfair Tax
Legislation has been introduced to end taxation of recoveries by sex abuse victims from their ... More abusers. Survivors of sexual abuse have long faced an unjust burden: taxation of their financial recoveries. Bipartisan legislation was recently introduced to change that. Representatives Lloyd Smucker and Gwen Moore introduced the Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act, which would exempt from tax most financial recoveries for sexual assault and sexual abuse. The House GOP is in the midst of proposing a sweeping tax and spending package, with significant haggling to be had. Narrow policy changes may make it in, but the priority seems to be the extension of soon-to-expire provisions from the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. If the Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act doesn't become law this round it might be incorporated into a 'technical corrections' bill soon after. It would certainly remove an unfairness that many have talked about, including this author and the presidents of the Society of Settlement Planners (SSP), the American Association of Settlement Consultants(AASC), and the National Structured Settlements Trade Association (NSSTA). The AASC has made it a centerpiece of its policy work. Lawyers for sexual abuse survivors also support the change. Trial lawyer Genie Harrison recovered for victims of Harvey Weinstein. She says, 'Survivors deserve full justice, not a second round of trauma at the hands of the tax code.' Trial lawyer Mike Arias helped secure an $852 million settlement for sexually abused students in a case against University of Southern California and Dr. George Tyndall. 'Ridiculous,' he calls the current law. "It's like treating their recovery as income gained for enduring pain and anguish they suffered from the sexual assault.' Since 1996, federal law has exempted settlements and awards from taxation if received 'on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness.' While the rule itself is broadly written, the IRS has historically interpreted physical injuries narrowly, looking for visible harm to qualify for tax-free treatment. The problem is obvious: many forms of sexual abuse leave no visible injuries. Survivors often suffer profound psychological, emotional, and internal injuries without visible marks—injuries that may never be documented or may have healed long ago. As plaintiff lawyers know firsthand, uncertainty and unfair taxation make the fight for justice more difficult. Shahrad Milanfar recently won a $32 million verdict for elder abuse. He talked through the difficulty that current law creates, 'Explaining to a plaintiff that they're going to be taxed when recovering money for what was taken from them is terrible. But they need to know early on in the process so they can plan for it.' The consequences are discussed often by professionals working in the area. For example, it was publicly raised in articles about sexual abuse survivors of Dr. Larry Nassar, the former physician of the USA Gymnastics Team. The Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act offers a targeted fix. It expressly excludes from taxable income most damages recovered by a survivor of sexual assault or abuse. Whether through judgment, settlement, or award, the recovery would be tax-free. Importantly, the legislation avoids the ambiguity that has plagued plaintiffs and their counsel under current law. Instead of relying on the problematic 'physical injury' standard, the bill ties tax exemption directly to the federal criminal code's definitions of 'sexual act' and 'sexual contact.' These federal definitions eliminate the guesswork survivors and lawyers have been forced to face when assessing tax exposure. And what's more, the legislation explicitly allows such tax treatment even if there are no 'medical records of such act or contact.' The bill also mandates an IRS public awareness campaign so that survivors, lawyers, and the broader public will learn of the exclusion. Clarity in the law is meaningless if those it protects never hear about it. The need for reform is not a new revelation; it's a long-standing demand for fairness in a system that too often compounds the harms that survivors already face. The Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act finally closes a longstanding gap—protecting sex abuse survivor recoveries without forcing survivors into tax uncertainty or conflict. Plaintiff lawyer Kevin Biniazan secured a $360 million verdict last year against a hospital for sexual abuse disguised as medical treatment. Says Biniazan, 'This is yet another necessary step, albeit long overdue, in the right direction towards a legal system that recognizes and protects the rights and interests of survivors of sexual abuse.'
Fox News
30-04-2025
- Business
- Fox News
REP. MIKE KELLY, SEN. TIM SCOTT AND SECRETARY SCOTT TURNER: Save the Opportunity Zones before it's too late
In 2017, Congress passed one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in the last quarter-century. When President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA), the law spurred economic growth the United States hadn't seen in a generation. Wages increased, and unemployment decreased. Americans were able to cash their paychecks and go home to their families with more money in their pockets. Now, eight years later, major TCJA provisions are up for renewal. Among them: Opportunity Zones, a successful, bipartisan piece of legislation that is transforming underserved communities in real time. Opportunity Zones have made an incredible impact across our nation. The Opportunity Zone (OZ) initiative allows investors from all over the United States to invest their capital gains earnings in economically distressed communities where new investments can be eligible for preferential capital gains tax treatment. Instead of sitting idle in a brokerage or bank account, this money is put to work in communities that have not seen significant private investment for some time. This pro-growth tax policy offers crucial incentives that do not cost American taxpayers a single cent. In 2017, this kind of policy may have seemed unbelievable to some within the Beltway. Despite the skepticism, OZs are actively transforming communities and creating economic opportunities for families in the poorest zip codes. Erie, Pennsylvania may best exemplify the economic benefits and the tangible changes Opportunity Zones can create in a relatively short period of time. In 2018, the city's downtown ZIP code, 16501, was named the poorest in Pennsylvania and among the poorest nationwide. However, through the potential of OZs, the stigma of Pennsylvania's poorest ZIP code served as a springboard for investment in the area. Shortly after TCJA was signed into law, a group of local residents recognized how Opportunity Zones could revitalize the city. Major employers, local universities and other organizations partnered to provide initial financial backing to form the Erie Downtown Development Corporation (EDDC). To date, EDDC has leveraged more than $115 million in private investment into downtown Erie, which has built 108 new fully occupied residences, revitalized and created more than 100,000 square feet of new commercial space, and established space for 25 new businesses. Overall, $400 million of long-term capital investment is at work, breathing new life into Downtown Erie. These investments have a proven track record of revitalizing small businesses and residential areas while fostering innovation in technology and manufacturing — an industry where South Carolina excels. Projects like the South Carolina Technology & Aviation Center (SCTAC) have generated over $6.1 billion in investments and created more than 18,000 new jobs in the local community. This further underscores the significance of Opportunity Zones, which have been and will continue to be impactful. Additionally, Opportunity Zones have played a significant role in assisting the revitalization of previously overlooked communities, transforming them into economic powerhouses. In Oconee County, South Carolina, investors transformed a textile mill built in 1875 along Lake Hartwell into 197 new residential apartments. The project also incorporated retail and recreational amenities, including the restoration of the historic dam and the creation of public green spaces and trails. Nationally, Opportunity Zones have generated $89 billion in private investment across more than 5,600 designated communities, and this investment spurred the creation of over 500,000 jobs in the first two years alone. According to a report released in March by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a bipartisan public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. The legislation also has a far-reaching impact — approximately one in 10 Americans live in an Opportunity Zone. That number could soon grow. The EIG report also indicates that OZs "caused an increase of 313,000 new residential addresses (not counting units currently under construction) in designated communities from Q3 2019 to Q3 2024 – roughly doubling the total amount of new housing added to these communities over that period." Moreover, the Council of Economic Advisors found that the Opportunity Zone designation alone caused a 3.4% increase in home values in these areas, which translated to an estimated tens of billions of dollars in new wealth for the Opportunity Zone residents who own their homes. In 2018, the city's downtown ZIP code, 16501, was named the poorest in Pennsylvania and among the poorest nationwide. However, through the potential of OZs, the stigma of Pennsylvania's poorest ZIP code served as a springboard for investment in the area. By empowering the private sector and cutting red tape, Opportunity Zones enable projects to move more efficiently and at a lower cost while simultaneously addressing one of the most pressing needs in low-income communities – quality affordable housing. From the very start of the 2017 tax law, we knew the Opportunity Zones initiative would be a gamechanger. It was made for shovel-ready projects in neighborhoods that needed the help the most. As we look ahead to 2025, the future is bright in places like Erie and Oconee County. The EDDC is preparing to break ground on another $22 million project, which includes 37,000 square-feet for commercial office and retail space. However, if Congress fails to extend TCJA and Opportunity Zones provisions expire, we could see projects years in the making completely upended overnight, along with the largest tax hike in modern history. It's critical that Congress extend, expand and make the 2017 tax cuts permanent so working families, small businesses, and communities nationwide can continue to receive the benefits of this legislation – and tax cuts at large – for years to come. Republican Tim Scott represents South Carolina in the United States Senate. He is author of the book, "America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity." Secretary Scott Turner leads the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He previously served as executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, where he championed Opportunity Zones during the first administration of President Donald J. Trump.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US House Republicans wrestle with Trump tax cuts, Medicaid needs
By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republicans in the U.S. Congress turn in earnest this week to their biggest challenge of Donald Trump's presidency: trying to bridge internal divisions over proposed cuts to Medicaid and popular green energy initiatives to pay for a landmark tax-cut bill they hope to enact by June. After a two-week recess marked by some heated encounters with constituents back home, Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives are due to begin debating and voting on segments of Trump's agenda legislation that would also fund his crackdown on immigration and bolster fossil fuel production and military spending. "We'd like to have it on the president's desk by June," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, told Reuters. "It's going to be a very transparent process, where committees will be holding their hearings and mark-ups in public view." Scalise said the top goal for Republicans is to extend provisions of Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, a move that nonpartisan researchers estimate would cost $4.6 trillion over a decade. Add in hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending for border security, deportations and defense, and the cost to the U.S. budget could skyrocket. The budget blueprint for Trump's agenda could add $5.8 trillion to the $36 trillion U.S. debt in the next decade, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates. Republicans claim the cost will be covered by a combination of spending cuts, higher economic growth and revenues from energy deregulation and Trump's tariffs. With slim Republican majorities of 220-213 seats in the House and 53-47 in the Senate, it is not clear that House Republicans can meet Speaker Mike Johnson's aim of passing the legislation and sending it on to the Senate before lawmakers leave town on May 22 for their Memorial Day recess. House and Senate Republicans barely managed to pass a budget resolution that will allow them to enact the Trump agenda by circumventing Democrats, who have nonetheless vowed to halt Trump's legislative juggernaut. "We're in active legislative combat," House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y. "They want to enact the largest Medicaid cut in American history. That is going to hurt families, hurt children, hurt seniors, hurt people with disabilities, hurt everyday Americans." NOW COMES THE HARD PART The budget blueprint contained no details about spending cuts. Now Republicans must grapple with changes that carry tangible consequences for their home districts. "It probably takes a little longer to get it out of the House," Representative Nicole Malliotakis said. "We're not just talking about the broad strokes here. We're talking actual legislative language, actual numbers." To win support from hardline conservatives, House Republicans set a spending cut target of $2 trillion over a decade and agreed that the scope of Trump's tax cuts would be scaled back to reflect any shortfall in funding reductions. But with House and Senate moderates pushing back on deep cuts to social safety-net programs and environmental initiatives, some worry that the $2 trillion goal could be out of reach. "That is the biggest challenge, getting that to the sweet spot where we have enough significant and noteworthy spending cuts to finalize the tax side," said Representative Blake Moore, vice chair of the House Republican Conference. Up to now, Republicans have looked to the Medicaid healthcare program for lower-income Americans and green tax credits for $880 billion in spending cuts over a decade. Education and agriculture programs have been targeted for an additional $560 billion in cuts. But concerns about Medicaid among a dozen House Republicans and several Senate Republicans have prompted Trump and party leaders to assure lawmakers that savings will not lead to benefit cuts. Those assurances have reduced fears about major cuts in the federal contribution to Medicaid, which is funded jointly by federal and state governments. Over 79 million Americans were enrolled in the program or a related healthcare service for poor children as of October. Lawmakers still think they can achieve hundreds of billions of dollars in savings through work requirements for able-bodied beneficiaries, spending caps on those earning above the poverty line, restrictions on Medicaid provider taxes and heightened efforts to ensure eligibility. "We've got to see what's in the bill," said Malliotakis, who opposes major Medicaid cuts. "We're not going to support something that will harm our hospitals or our seniors or our disabled." House Republicans also face a conundrum over proposed cuts to green energy tax credits, while the White House has said it supports initiatives for carbon capture and storage, nuclear energy and geothermal energy that some want to ax. Scalise said environmental provisions remain on the chopping block but said the outcome will ultimately depend on how much support cost-saving proposals can win during upcoming debates.
