Treasury Secretary Yellen: “Catastrophe” if USA No‘t raise the debt ceiling. President Biden meets with congressional leaders tomorrow to discuss the debt limit, which could be reached as early as June 1. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said ABC’s this week: “If they don’t, we will have an economic and financial catastrophe of our own making, and there is no action that President Biden and the US Treasury can take to prevent that catastrophe.”
The Senate Finance Committee can search Harlan Crow tax returns. following a ProPublica report on payments made by billionaire Harlan Crow for the benefit of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his family, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden has given Crow until today to provide a full description of the Crow’s gifts to Judge Thomas. “If it does not comply, I will explore using other tools available to the committee to obtain this critical information,” Wyden said in a declaration.
Also on Capitol Hill this week… The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health will conduct a hearing wednesday on policies that affect innovation and patient access to certain therapies and treatments. The Senate Finance Committee will conduct a hearing Thursday morning to examine US pharmaceutical manufacturers and international tax policy.
Jurisdiction challenged in Maryland Supreme Court challenge to digital advertising tax. Verizon and Comcast continue to challenge the constitutionality of the Maryland tax on digital advertising. A Maryland court ruled last year that the tax violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act and the US Constitution’s prohibition on state interference in interstate commerce. He Associated Press reports on the debate on which court should have jurisdiction. Maryland has argued that the case should go to the US Tax Court, while Verizon and Comcast argue that the state’s high court should review the dispute. Some companies have already voluntarily sent digital advertising tax payments to Maryland totaling nearly $107 million.
Is the Pennsylvania marijuana tax too high? A revenue analysis by the Independent Tax Office finds that Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal for adult cannabis use could generate $253 million a year by fiscal year 2028, but 20 percent the tax rate on recreational marijuana may be too high. Meredith Buettner of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition says that such a fee could be “prohibitively cost to people. They are more likely to remain in the illicit market.”
Denver City Councilmember proposes a new tax to support minority-owned businesses. Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca has proposed that Denver impose a new tax to fund repairs for minority-owned businesses. Specifically, a business improvement district, or BID, could be used to enact a race-based tax on white-owned businesses. “You could be collecting those additional taxes from white-run businesses across the city and redistributing them to black and brown-owned businesses,” he said at a forum before the Denver Metropolitan Area Ministerial Alliance. If such a tax were enacted, it would likely result in constitutional challenges.
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