A sign is displayed outside the Internal Revenue Service building May 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
A bill that would try to abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and eliminate federal income tax was reintroduced on Tuesday by Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter.
A vote on the bill, labeled the Fair Tax Act, was part of a deal that was negotiated between the House Freedom Caucus and Speaker Kevin McCarthy during his quest for the speakership.
The Act “will eliminate the need for the IRS by simplifying our tax code with provisions that work for the American people,” Carter said on Twitter.
The current federal income tax scheme would be replaced with a single nationwide consumption tax. The Office of Management and Budget criticized the bill and said it would only benefit certain taxpayers.
“With their first economic legislation of the new Congress, House Republicans are making clear that their top economic priority is to allow the rich and multi-billion dollar corporations to skip out on their taxes, while making life harder for ordinary, middle-class families that pay the taxes they owe,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.
The vote comes after House Republicans passed a bill Monday evening that would prevent plans to fund 87,000 new IRS agents, originally included in the Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats passed last year.
A date has not been set for the vote on the Fair Tax Act. However, both bills are unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged Wednesday for a third straight time, and its officials signaled that they expect to make three quarter-point cuts to their benchmark rate next year.
Hunter Biden on Wednesday defied a congressional subpoena to appear privately for a deposition before Republican investigators who have been digging into his business dealings, insisting outside the U.S. Capitol that he will only testify in public.
The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to take up a dispute over a medication used in the most common method of abortion in the United States, its first abortion case since it overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Shawn Fain, the international president of the United Auto Workers union who recently won large raises for his workers, is taking aim at a new target: New Jersey lawmakers who are delaying votes on a bill to ban smoking in Atlantic City’s casinos.
