Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Congressman Vern Buchanan announced today that he has reintroduced the TCJA Permanency Act (H.R.976), legislation to make permanent tax cuts for individuals and small businesses originally enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. Buchanan was joined by 72 of his House Republican colleagues as original cosponsors in introducing this bill.

Without Congressional action, 23 different provisions of the 2017 Republican tax law are set to expire after 2025.

“In 2017, Republicans delivered the most comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than three decades and achieved historic economic growth,” said Buchanan, the most senior Republican and Vice Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. “With Americans continuing to suffer under the weight of record-high inflation and an uncertain economic future, we need to provide some much-needed relief and certainty to hardworking families and Main Street businesses and ensure these tax cuts do not expire.”

Previously serving as chairman of the Ways and Means Tax Policy Subcommittee, Buchanan helped oversee the successful and smooth implementation of TCJA. During the 2017 tax reform debate, he focused on lowering tax rates for individuals and small businesses and led the Small Business and Passthroughs Working Group.

According to the Tax Foundation, “most taxpayers will see a tax hike unless some or all provisions are extended.” In fact, according to its initial estimates, a single mother of two earning $52,000 would face a $1,500 tax hike in 2026. For a married couple with two children and $85,000 in income, the additional tax bill would be over $1,700 per year.

Key Provisions of Buchanan’s Bill:

1. Permanently lowers tax rates for individuals and families, allowing Americans at every income level to keep more of their hard-earned money
2. Preserves the 20 percent deduction for small businesses, ensuring taxes won’t go up on Main Street businesses, which employ nearly half of the U.S. workforce
3. Maintains the higher standard deduction, increasing the amount of tax-free income a middle-class family can earn
4. Locks in the doubled child tax credit, further encouraging workforce participation
5. Permanently simplifies the tax filing process, allowing 9 out of 10 Americans to get the full benefit of tax deductions without the headache of tracking receipts or itemizing

In addition, the legislation would expand eligible uses of 529 savings plans to help parents and students and make technical, conforming changes.

The TCJA Permanency Act has received the support of Americans for Tax Reform, America First Policy Institute, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Heritage Action, the National Association of Manufacturers, the S-Corp Association, the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), Americans for Prosperity and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Republican tax cuts reduced taxes on middle-class families and small businesses across the country and created nearly 5 million jobs in the two years following its passage. It also delivered the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years (3.5 percent), all-time low unemployment for African American and Hispanic workers and the fastest wage growth in a decade.

Despite critiques from some, corporate tax revenues totaled $425 billion in FY2022 — approximately 20 percent more than projected by the Congressional Budget Office after passage of TCJA in 2017 and overall federal tax collections hit a record high of $4.9 trillion last year.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office also found that TCJA reduced federal tax rates for families across every income level while actually increasing the share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent of American households.

“The results of TCJA were nothing short of remarkable, but not surprising,” said Buchanan. “As someone who spent 30 years building businesses, I know from experience that making our tax code more competitive means greater prosperity for small businesses and families.”

According to the Tax Foundation, making TCJA’s individual tax provisions permanent will lead to 2.2 percent higher GDP in the long-term. As noted by the former president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), "[Buchanan’s] sponsorship of the Main Street Fairness Act established the principle that tax reform should start with small business. That principle became one of the pillars of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act."

Buchanan has led five of the six Ways and Means Subcommittees and currently sits on the Joint Committee on Taxation, a small group of the most senior tax-writers in Congress.

Original cosponsors of Buchanan’s legislation include Reps. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Troy Balderson (R-Ohio), Dan Bishop (R-NC) Mike Bost (R-Ill.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), Mike Carey (R-Ohio), Buddy Cater (R-Ga.), Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), John Duarte (R-Calif.), Jake Elzay (R-Texas), Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Ron Estes (R-Kan.), Mike Ezell (R-Miss.), Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), Brad Finstad (R-Minn.), Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), Lance Gooden (R-Texas), Garrett Graves (R-La.), Michael Guest (R-Miss.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Clay Higgins (R-La.), Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), Mike Johnson (R-La.), Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.), Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Tracey Mann (R-Kan.), Brian Mast (R-Fla.), Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), Carol Miller (R-W.Va.), Mary Miller (R-Inn.), Max Miller (R-Ohio), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), Barry Moore (R-Ala.), Blake Moore (R-Utah), Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), James Moylan (R-Guam), Zachary Nunn (R-Iowa), Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), Burgess Owens (R-Utah), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), John Rutherford (R-Fla.), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), William Timmons (R-SC), Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), Brandon Williams (R-NY), and Roger Williams (R-Texas).

 

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