2017: Fitzpatrick Voted For The House GOP's 2017 Tax Reform Plan Which
Significantly Cut Taxes For The Rich And Corporations And Phased Out The
Investment Tax Credit For Solar Energy. In November 2017, Fitzpatrick
voted for reconciliation legislation which significantly altered the
federal tax code. According to Congressional Quarterly, "The bill
substantially restructures the U.S. tax code to simplify the code and
reduce taxes on individuals, corporations and small businesses. For
individuals, it consolidates the current seven tax brackets down to four
and eliminates or restricts many tax credits and deductions, including
by eliminating the deduction for state and local income taxes and
limiting the deduction for property taxes to $10,000 and the interest
deduction for a home mortgage to the first $500,000 worth of a loan.
[...] On the business side, it reduces the corporate tax from 35% to
20% and establishes a 'territorial' tax system that would exempt most
income derived overseas from U.S. corporate taxation. It allows
businesses to immediately expense 100% of the cost of assets acquired
and placed into service, and for small businesses it raises the Section
179 expensing limit to $5 million for five years. It also establishes a
25% rate for a portion of pass-through business income that would
otherwise have to be paid at the ordinary individual tax level, and for
small businesses where an individual would receive less than $150,000
in pass-through income it taxes the first $75,000 of that income at a
9% rate." The vote was on passage. The House passed the bill by a vote
of 227 to 205. President Trump later signed an amended version of the
bill into law. [House Vote 637,
11/16/17; Congressional
Quarterly, 11/15/17;
Congressional Actions, H.R.
1]
Bill Repeals Numerous Energy Tax Credits, Including The Per-Barrel
Credit For Crude Oil And Certain Clean Energy Tax Credits.
According to Congressional Quarterly, "The bill makes a number of
modifications to tax credits provided for the production of energy,
including repeal of the inflation adjustment for the renewable
electricity production tax credit for qualified projects placed in
service after Nov. 2, 2017, with the credit amount reverting to 1.5
cents per kilowatt hour (from 2.3 cents in 2016), and harmonization
of the expiration dates, phase-out schedules and application of the
30% investment tax credit as applied to solar, fuel cell, and small
wind energy. That investment tax credit would not be available for
properties beginning construction after 2021." [Congressional
Quarterly, 11/15/17]
NOTE TO RESEARCHER. Good state by state data on solar jobs and
the industry can be found in the citation. [Solar Foundation,
Accessed
3/1/18]