Here's a look at the next steps for the GOP tax plan

Here’s a look at the next steps for the GOP tax plan

By Lisa Mascaro

and Jim Puzzanghera

Oct. 11, 2017 1:40 PM PT

What Republicans need to do next to pass tax reform:

The Senate must pass a 2018 fiscal year budget plan, which would allow for tax changes to be enacted with a simple majority. Votes are expected next week. The House passed a $4.1-trillion budget plan last week.
The House and Senate must then agree on a final version of the budget plan and adopt it.
A tax bill would be introduced in the House Ways and Means Committee, in consultation with the Senate Finance Committee, likely in November.
The House hopes to vote on the tax bill before Thanksgiving.
The Senate then would aim to vote on the bill before Christmas.

These key issues still must be decided:

State and local taxes — Republicans wanted to eliminate the deduction, but opposition means they’ll probably have to keep it in some form.
Tax brackets — Income levels for individual tax rates still must be set, with the possibility of a fourth bracket for higher incomes.
Deductions and loopholes — Republicans say they will eliminate most of them, but lobbyists will fight once specific changes are made public.

-- By Lisa Mascaro and Jim Puzzenghera

Politics

Lisa Mascaro

Lisa Mascaro previously covered Congress in Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. She left in February 2018. A Los Angeles-area native, she has reported across Southern California, edited, traveled the States and worked in Texas. While the Washington correspondent for the Las Vegas Sun, she contributed as the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. An economics and political science graduate of UC Santa Barbara, she also studied in Budapest, Hungary.

Jim Puzzanghera

Jim Puzzanghera covered business and economic issues from the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau. He joined The Times in 2006 and won the paper’s Editor’s Award in 2009 for coverage of the financial crisis. He has worked in the nation’s capital since 1998 and is a two-time National Press Club award winner for Washington coverage. A Northwestern University graduate, he previously worked for the San Jose Mercury News, Newsday and the St. Petersburg Times. He left The Times in 2019.

Here’s a look at the next steps for the GOP tax plan

What Republicans need to do next to pass tax reform:

These key issues still must be decided:

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