US Senate passes tax cuts for America's richest in late-night vote

The US Senate has approved a major tax overhaul, bringing the Trump administration one step closer to its aim of slashing taxes for businesses and the wealthy, while delivering mixed changes for the rest of the country.

In what would be the largest US tax overhaul since the 1980s, Republicans want to add $1.4 trillion over 10 years to the $20 trillion national debt to finance changes that they say would further boost an already growing economy.

Following the 51-49 vote, talks will begin, likely next week, between the Senate and the House of Representatives, which has already approved its own tax bill. The two chambers must craft a single bill to send to Trump to sign into law.

Before the bill passed, Donald Trump tweeted: "Republicans Senators are working hard to pass the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. The bill is getting better and better. This is a once in a generation chance. Obstructionist (Democrats) trying to block because they think it is too good and will not be given the credit!"

Under the bill, the corporate tax rate would be permanently slashed to 20 per cent from 35 per cent, while future foreign profits of US-based firms would be largely exempted from tax - both changes pursued by corporate lobbyists for years.

On the individual side of the tax code, the top tax rate paid by the highest-income earners would be cut slightly.

Included in the bill was a move to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a loosening of the rules saying churches must stay nonpolitical if they want to enjoy tax-free status, while sports teams will lose some of their privileges.

Celebrating their victory, Republican leaders said the tax cuts would encourage US. companies to invest more and boost economic growth.

"We have an opportunity now to make America more competitive, to keep jobs from being shipped offshore and to provide substantial relief to the middle class," said Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate.

The tax overhaul is seen by Republicans as crucial to their prospects in the November 2018 mid-term election campaigns when they will have to defend their majorities in Congress.

In a legislative battle that moved so fast a final draft of the bill was unavailable to the public until just hours before the vote, Democrats slammed the measure as a give-away to businesses and the rich financed with billions in taxpayer debt.

The framework for both the Senate and House bills was developed in secret over a few months by a half-dozen Republican congressional leaders and Trump advisers, with little input from the party's rank-and-file and none from Democrats.

The Senate approved their bill in the early hours, with Democrats complaining that last-minute amendments circulated among senators were poorly drafted and vulnerable to being gamed later by lawyers and accountants in the tax avoidance industry.

"The Republicans have managed to take a bad bill and make it worse," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

"Under the cover of darkness and with the aid of haste, a flurry of last-minute changes will stuff even more money into the pockets of the wealthy and the biggest corporations."

No Democrats voted for the bill, but they lacked the votes to block it because Republicans hold a 52-48 Senate majority.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy praised the bill, saying: "Working families and middle-income families across the nation will be better off. Families who over the last eight years have not done well will begin to do better."

Six Republican senators, who wanted and got last-minute amendments and whose votes had been in doubt, said on Friday they would back the bill and did so.

Senator Bob Corker, one of few remaining Republican fiscal hawks who pledged early on to oppose any bill that expanded the federal deficit, stood out as the lone Republican dissenter.

"I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that ... could deepen the debt burden on future generations," said Corker, who is not running for re-election.

Numerous last-minute changes were made to the bill on Friday and in the early morning hours of Saturday.

One was to make state and local property tax deductible up to $10,000, mirroring the House bill. The Senate previously had proposed entirely ending state and local tax deductibility.

In another change, the alternative minimum tax (AMT), both for individuals and corporations, would not be repealed in full. Instead, the individual AMT would be adjusted and the corporate AMT would be maintained as is, lobbyists said.

Another change would put a five-year limit on letting businesses immediately write off the full value of new capital investments. That would phase out over four years starting in year six, rather than be permanent as initially proposed.

Under the bill, the corporate tax rate would be permanently slashed to 20 percent from 35 percent, while future foreign profits of U.S.-based firms would be largely exempted from tax -- both changes pursued by corporate lobbyists for years.

On the individual side of the tax code, the top tax rate paid by the highest-income earners would be cut slightly.

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, analysed an earlier but broadly similar version of the bill passed by the Senate tax committee on 16 November and found it would reduce taxes for all income groups in 2019 and 2025, with the largest average tax cuts going to the highest-income Americans.

Two Republican senators announced their support for the bill on Friday after winning more tax relief for non-corporate pass-through businesses. These include partnerships and other companies not organized as public corporations, ranging from mom-and-pop concerns to large financial and real estate groups.

The bill now features a 23 percent tax deduction for such business owners, up from the original 17.4 percent.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said Trump controlled more than 500 pass-through companies that would directly benefit.

"So the president may be celebrating, but most Americans will rue this day," Mr Blumenthal said.

The Senate bill would gut a section of Obamacare by repealing a fee paid by some Americans who do not buy health insurance, a step critics said would undermine the Obamacare system and raise insurance premiums for the sick and the old.

Additional reporting by Reuters