Environmental proposals on the table include a potential tax on the carbon content of fossil fuels starting at $15 per ton; a carbon tax on major industrial emitters like steel, cement and chemicals, and a per-barrel tax on crude oil. Each option would be paired with rebates for low-income taxpayers and a border-adjustment tax.
Fossil-fuel companies could also lose assorted tax breaks. The set of proposals under consideration also includes a 20-cents a pound fee on the sale of so-called virgin plastics.
Wealthy Estates
The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Ron Wyden, is also considering proposals to end popular techniques the ultra wealthy use to avoid estate taxes, including grantor-retained annuity trusts and intentionally defective grantor trusts, according to the people.
In addition, the committee may seek to compel the Treasury to revive regulations that would limit the use of discounts for reducing the value of assets held in closely held family businesses for estate and gift tax purposes. A set of rules was proposed in 2016 by the Obama administration but later withdrawn under the Trump administration -- a move heralded at the time by trade groups and Republican lawmakers who opposed the regulations for being overly broad.
--With assistance from Allyson Versprille.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.