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Ways and Means Committee approves wide-ranging tax bill.  

On January 19, 2024, the House Ways and
Means Committee overwhelmingly approved
the Tax Relief for American Families and
Workers Act of 2024 by a 40-3 vote. The
bill provides for increases in the child tax
credit, delays the requirement to deduct
research and experimentation expenditures
over a five-year period, extends 100-percent
bonus depreciation through 2025, and
increases the Code Sec. 179 deduction
limitation, among other business-friendly
provisions. The bill would also extend tax
treaty-like benefits to Taiwan, and extend
some disaster-related tax relief. The
provisions are paid for by changes to the
COVID-era employee retention tax credit,
including an acceleration of the termination
of the period for making new claims, and
increasing penalties on erroneous or
fraudulent credit claims.
Most of the significant provisions in the
bill are retroactively applicable to prior
tax years. The hope is to get this bill to
President Biden before filing season begins
for the 2023 tax year. However, it is unclear
if this is possible given House and Senate
schedules during January, though the bill
enjoys bipartisan support in both chambers
of Congress. Even if Congress could pass
the bill before filing season starts, changes
that are retroactively applied to the 2023
tax season would create headaches for
the IRS and would surely lead to a delay in
processing returns.

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