When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent isn’t busy working on tariffs, he’s doubling down on a new Trump tax plan.
Bessent told Yahoo Finance that the two sides are discussing a tax deal.
“While all the attention is on tariffs right now, we’ve had good luck — or very, very good progress, which is not luck, because we’ve put in a lot of hard work — on the tax bill. The tax bill is being considered by the Senate and the House. I think we’ll have a final version of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by July 4. I think that will give people certainty,” Bessent said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
About $4.5 trillion in tax cuts are about to expire as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The bill is set to expire on December 31, 2025.
The TCJA slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Although the corporate tax rate has been made permanent, lawmakers are revisiting the tax code to review all of the provisions that are set to expire.
Also known as the Trump tax cut, the deduction for state and local taxes is capped at $10,000, while the standard deduction is doubled and the child tax credit is expanded.
The House recently passed a budget bill that includes trillions of dollars in tax and government spending cuts.
The plan would cut taxes by about $5 trillion. It would also increase the government debt by $5.7 trillion, according to news reports.
Bessent declined to comment on whether he would be willing to let the tax cuts for the wealthy expire to help fund the plan.
“I think we’re looking at everything. So, we’re looking at a range of things to raise revenue, and I’m not going to preempt the president, which is always a bad idea, and we’ll see what the president ultimately decides on this,” Bessent said.
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