Dems change some tax provisions as they ready economic bill

WASHINGTON — Democrats pared part of their proposed minimum tax on huge corporations and made other changes in their giant economic bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday, as they drove toward delivering a campaign-season victory to President Joe Biden on his domestic agenda. In an unusual peek at closed-door bargaining, Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats dropped a proposed tax boost on hedge fund executives after pivotal centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., said she would otherwise vote “no.” Schumer said that in its place, the measure now has a new tax — which others said will be 1% — on the shares companies buy back of their own stock, netting the government far more revenue. Sinema said she would not vote for the bill” or even vote to let debate begin unless private equity tax was removed from the legislation, Schumer told reporters. Under current law, those executives can pay significantly less than the top 37% individual tax rate on their income, which is called “carried interest.” That measure was also a favorite of conservative Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a long-time holdout against larger versions of Biden’s domestic plans who helped write the compromise legislation with Schumer.