Biden and Democrat’s 2022 Stimulus Package (Inflation Reduction Act) Impacts, Payments and Tax Considerations – Updates and Latest News

[Updated with latest developments] President Biden and the Democrats have finally passed a scaled down version of the BBB act, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (H. R. 5376).

Key provisions include:

Medicare Savings: Introduction of a $2,000 annual cap on Medicare recipient contributions to prescription spending. This gives seniors 65 and older more money in their pockets at the end of the year than they would have had before the bill.

There is also $370 billion of funding to fight climate change over the next ten years. This would be done via clean energy investments, like the EV Tax credit extension discussed below. There is funding to expand renewable energy infrastructure around solar panels and wind turbines.

EV Tax Credit Extension: For single filers making less than $150K a year, or $300K for joint filers, the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit extension can be a boon. There is a cap on the price of eligible vehicles at $55,000 for eligible new cars and $80,000 for trucks and vans.

$80 billion for IRS enforcement actions by hiring thousands of agents and modernizing internal systems. While this will increase the number of audits, it should also address some of the ongoing refund payment delays many tax filers are facing.

Lower healthcare premiums via $64 billion of funding for people with Affordable Care Act health plans. This would keep premiums around $10 for millions of lower income Americans enrolled in the federal health insurance exchange.

Up to $14,000 in tax credits and rebates for homeowners and builders to make their homes more energy efficient and reduce dependence on fossil fuel based energy through usage of certain appliances and home building upgrades.

Mid-to-large business’ will also be impacted by this bill through the creation of a 15% minimum tax for corporations making $1 billion or more in income. The is expected to bring in more than $300 billion in revenue to offset some of the bill’s costs.

A 1% excise tax on stock buybacks was also added (vs elimination of the carried interest loophole) in the final legislation.

Are there any more Stimulus payments in the latest package?

Unfortunately additional stimulus payments (ranging from $600 to $2000, depending on your source) were stripped from the bill due to the potential inflationary impact from additional stimulus.

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[Feb 2022] After several weeks of in-party bickering President Biden and Congressional Democrat leaders took the first big step in passing their massive spending bill, a.k.a the Build Back Better (BBB) Act.

By passing the bill in the House, and getting an actual bill documented, Democrats have now sent the bill to the Senate for final negotiation. Specific details will change as legislators work to reduce the cost and adjust tax provisions in order to pacify key party holdouts (Senators Manchin and Sinema).

All 50 Democrat votes will be needed in the Senate to pass the final bill, before it heads to the President for signature. You can see some of the tax provisions and new/extended payments in the sections below.

Note – The BBB bill is different to the recently passed and signed Infrastructure bill

Federal Income Tax Rates

The proposal includes provisions to raise the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% (from 37%) for individuals making over $400,000 and married couples making over $450,000. That’s down from $523,600 and $628,300 under current law.

The proposal also calls for a 3% surtax on ultra-wealthy individuals and married couples with adjusted gross incomes above $5 million. In addition proposals include the removal of many incentives for estate-planning techniques, including some uses of grantor trusts and asset transfers with discounted values.

[Update] Democrats are reportedly looking to fund their reconciliation bill without raising top-line tax rates on wealthy individuals and profitable corporations. They are instead considering imposing a corporate alternative minimum tax, creating a 15 percent minimum tax for multinationals’ overseas profits and curbing tax evasion by pumping up the IRS. 

Capital Gains Tax

As expected the proposals call for an increase of the long-term capital-gains and dividends rate to 25% from 20%. This is less than what the Biden administration wanted and also excludes imposing “death” tax to heirs on unrealized asset gains.

What did raise some consternation is that if passed the capital-gains tax increase would be effective immediately, and retroactively applied even if the bill is passed at a later date.

IRA Limits and Mandatory Distributions

People with tax-advantaged retirement accounts (e.g. IRAs) worth over $10 million would no longer be able to contribute to those accounts and would face sharply higher mandatory distributions.

Health Care Premium Expansion

The plan has provisions to extend the already expanded Premium Tax Credit to reduce health insurance premiums for more than 9 million Americans and expand coverage to millions more of uninsured Americans who don’t have access to Medicaid.

Child Tax Credit Permanent Expansion

The new package calls for making the Child Tax Credit permanent. However there will likely only be funding for three to five years in the reduced spending package, while lowering income qualification thresholds meaning fewer families will qualify for the full credit.

Earned Income Tax Credit

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) will be expanded for millions of Americans and essentially act as a tax cut for lower income Americans and their families.

Property Tax Deduction

The proposal released by the committee didn’t address the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT) which was capped at $10,000 in 2017. But this may be revisited in future revisions given many progressive Democrats in high taxing states are pushing for the cap to be raised or removed entirely.

Corporate Tax Rates

The top Corporate tax rate will rise to 26.5% from 21%, which is better than the 28% rate that President Biden had wanted. The proposal would also change the current flat tax rate structure to a progressive one, so small business are not adversely impacted. It would work by imposing a 18% on the first $400,000 of income; 21% on income up to $5 million, and a rate of 26.5% on income thereafter.

Partnerships and S-Corp business owners may see the biggest changes, with caps being reintroduced that would limit the owners personal income tax deductions to $500,000 for joint filers, $400,000 for individuals and $250,000 for a married person filing a separate return.

Companies would also face higher taxes on their foreign income with the minimum tax would go up from 10.5% to 16.6%.

See the full House Ways and Means proposal here.

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5 thoughts on “Biden and Democrat’s 2022 Stimulus Package (Inflation Reduction Act) Impacts, Payments and Tax Considerations – Updates and Latest News”

  1. The inflation package passed Are seniors getting a stimulis onbAugust social security like ssi folks are.

    Reply
  2. Do any of the seniors k n o w when they were supposed to get a stimulus check for seniors in 2022. Sun magazine is kind of a fool they got tons of back to back to back stimulus money checks that just end up in some simulated thing but it doesn’t really explain what day what state or anything else where and when these stimulus checks are supposed to come they said that you’d get one on your birthday month I guess Sun is just a fake magazine sometimes that doesn’t make any sense I’m under the impression that mine has already been supposed to get to me I’ve already had my birthday and I’m a senior

    Reply
  3. Through out this pandemic, I have seen people that are left with out a home , clothes, food, water, and more. But you do hear of how there is aid given out in various stages and how each states governors have been granted funds to help those struggling to survive. To me it goes to say that not the government or the state care what is to be the out come in each state. I live in Cherokee Iowa and out of the grant money given to the state I have to comment that I fail to see individuals that don’t have to get out each day and go in search of relief of various kinds just to live until the sun comes up the next day. Here in Cherokee, a person can find walking paths that have been constructed, one school is taken down to the ground, but will any of the government officials, or the state officals step forward to provide relief to the individual to keep thier jobs, their means to survival to aid them in feeding, clothing the children they care for or have a sense of responsibility for the care or quality of the lives they chosen to lead? In the last four years I have not been able to aquire any means of relief for the loss of my long time significant other to help with his care,or after life, or the support of others that are to provide aid to the low income individuals that are still here to make this country strong once again. I have not found one agency to aid a single female in the purchase of the very home she has been working to aquire and help in keeping up the utilities going in order to live out the life she has built or to keep the cleanliness of her self or home she has been trying to keep and has go wake up each day to battle for her survival.

    Reply
  4. Hey my name is Chantaye Williams me and my kids homeless with no where to stayed out we lost all our clothes in a house fire last years its hard for us to find a house we don’t have that much funds at all we basic on street stay from hear to there with no where to go

    Reply

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