Lawmakers still need to get a cost analysis of their agreement, so it’s not yet definite, the person said.
House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, who’s overseeing the House-Senate conference committee, said he couldn’t confirm that a tentative deal had been reached, adding there is still work to do.
Representative Dave Reichert, a Washington Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said there are still details to nail down.
The House-Senate conference committee is scheduled to hold its first and only public meeting at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Thus far, negotiations on the tax overhaul have taken place behind closed doors. -- Kaustuv Basu and Erik Wasson
GOP Plans to Set 21% Corporate Rate in 2018 (11:40 a.m.)
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said House and Senate lawmakers are “very close” on a deal that would meld their approaches to overhauling the tax code. “I think you’ll hear an announcement here relatively soon,” said Cornyn, the chamber’s second-ranking GOP leader.
The current plan is to set a corporate rate of 21 percent, but make that rate cut effective in 2018 -- a year earlier than the Senate’s measure would have -- according to a Republican official who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
Republicans in both chambers had approved cutting the corporate rate to 20 percent from the current 35 percent, but the House plan would make that move in 2018.
Lawmakers are also leaning toward keeping the estate tax, the official said. Both chambers called for doubling the exemption limits for the tax, but the House bill calls for its full repeal in 2025. Negotiators are also planning to set a top individual tax rate of 37 percent and cut the mortgage deduction limit to $750,000 from $1 million, according to the official.
Republicans are trying to get final legislation hammered out in time for President Donald Trump to sign it next week -- giving the party a long-sought major policy victory before the end of 2017.