A tax provision in the coronavirus relief package will mostly benefit millionaires, nonpartisan report finds

Congress.
(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Tuesday accused Republicans of looting the American people during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, The Washington Post reports. That's because a new report from the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan congressional body, found that a tax provision included in the congressional coronavirus relief package by GOP senators will overwhelmingly benefit people making over $1 million per year while costing taxpayers $90 billion in 2020 alone.

The provision that has Whitehouse and others up in arms is the suspension of a limitation on how much owners of "pass-through" businesses (that is, businesses whose profits are subject to the owners' individual income tax rather corporate income taxes) can deduct against their non-business income, such as capital gains. The limitation was initially included in the 2017 Republican tax law, capping deductions at $250,000 in losses, but advocates on the right called it a mistake.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.