WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - House Republicans easily approved their tax reform bill on Thursday, although final passage of legislation remains less than a certainty.
The House voted 227 to 205 in favor of their tax reform legislation known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with the vote coming down largely along party lines.
However, the House version of tax reform is significantly different than the bill that is currently being marked up by the Senate Finance Committee.
The legislation reduces the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and lowers individual tax rates for low and middle-income Americans to zero, 12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent while maintaining the 39.6 percent rate for high-income Americans.
The bill also nearly doubles the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and to $24,000 for married couples.
Republicans have argued the proposal simplifies the tax code so an individual or family can file their taxes on a form the size of a postcard.
While the GOP said the bill eliminates special-interest deductions, the proposed legislation continues to allow people to write off the cost of state and local property taxes up to $10,000.
An earlier proposal to eliminate the state and local tax deduction raised significant concerns among members of Congress from high-tax states.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Tex., offered a compromise that would preserve the deduction for property taxes but not for state and local income taxes.
The bill also preserves the home mortgage interest deduction for existing mortgages, although the cap on the mortgage interest deduction for newly purchased homes was cut in half to $500,000.
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