Tax breaks

Large retailers like Walmart Inc. and Target Corp., as well as student loan borrowers, are on a long list of potential winners from tax breaks included in a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill approved by the Senate.

Days of negotiations between the Trump administration and Congress — and fierce lobbying by industries eager for assistance dealing with the coronavirus outbreak — has yielded a rescue package worth more than $2 trillion in spending and tax breaks.

A centerpiece of the package is tax rebates to individuals of $1,200 and $2,400 for married couples. Rebates are completely phased-out for taxpayers with incomes exceeding $99,000 for individuals or $198,000 for a couple.

A package of coronavirus relief legislation that was signed into law Wednesday includes provisions for paid sick leave, family leave and medical leave, along with tax credits to help employers and the self-employed pay for them.

The U.S. Treasury will be able to support smaller businesses impacted by the coronavirus through an economic relief plan that the House passed late Friday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Senator Bernie Sanders is proposing hiking taxes on executive retirement plans and using the extra revenue to aid struggling worker pension plans.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department released guidance Friday to help farmers deal with a provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and reduce their taxes by leveraging a tax break for small businesses.

It’s been two years since investors were able to claim tax write-offs for investment costs and advice, but lawyers have found a potential workaround hidden in years-old IRS regulations and case law that may cut tax bills for some private equity and hedge fund investors.

The controversy keeps mounting over a new tax break for investing in poor U.S. communities. But investors keep piling in.

Home values in areas designated as “opportunity zones” appear to have been affected so little it’s “statistically indistinct from zero,” according to new research.