Bipartisan tax bill clears key congressional hurdle, teeing up potential House vote

• A $78 billion tax package with major benefits for companies took a significant step towards becoming law.
• The package includes allowing the immediate expensing of research and development costs, and allowing machines, equipment, and vehicles to be fully and immediately expensed.
• The bill also expands the child tax credit by adjusting it for inflation and allowing Americans who don't have a tax bill to get the credit as a refund.

WASHINGTON — A $78 billion tax package with major benefits for companies took a significant step towards becoming law on Friday, when a key House panel overwhelmingly approved the bill by a vote of 40-3.

The strong bipartisan showing in the House Ways and Means Committee adds more momentum to the proposed changes, which include allowing the immediate expensing of research and development costs, allowing machines, equipment, and vehicles to be fully and immediately expensed and increased flexibility for businesses through interest deductions. 

The package also includes tax credits to incentivize the building of affordable rental units, disaster relief for wildfires and train derailments that occurred last year, and it takes the first steps to remove double taxation for business and workers with ties to the U.S. and Taiwan.  

Several of these provisions were part of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, but they expired over the last several years. Since then, major business groups like the Business Roundtable, Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have lobbied lawmakers to reinstate them.

The package released earlier this week was the result of a rare, bipartisan agreement between Republican House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (Mo.) and Democratic Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden