Overnight Finance: What to watch for in GOP tax plan rollout | IRS sharing info with special counsel probe | SEC doesn’t know full extent of hack | New sanctions target North Korean banks

Trump says tax plan to nearly double standard deduction: President Trump on Tuesday said that Republicans’ forthcoming tax plan will include “nearly doubling” the standard deduction and increasing the child tax credit.

“We will cut taxes tremendously for the middle class. Not just a little bit but tremendously,” Trump said at a meeting in the White House with a bipartisan group of members on the House Ways and Means Committee.

{mosads}

The president’s comments come one day before the White House and top congressional Republicans release a tax-overhaul framework that is intended to serve as a guideline for the Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee as they craft legislation. Trump is also planning to sell the plan during a speech Wednesday in Indiana.

Trump said that the framework would be “comprehensive” and a “very, very powerful document.” The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda reports: http://bit.ly/2y6sLVi.

 

Dem: Trump admin open to negotiation on top individual tax rate: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin indicated at a meeting Tuesday that the White House is open to negotiating on lowering the top individual tax rate to 35 percent, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said.

“[Mnuchin] did indicate that the wealthy were not going to get any tax relief,” Neal, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters.

A group of Republicans and Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee met with Mnuchin, President Trump and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn ahead of the release of Republicans’ tax-reform framework on Wednesday.

The plan is expected to lower the top individual rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent, but Neal said Mnuchin signaled the rate was a “negotiable point.” http://bit.ly/2y5LOPq.

 

Five things to watch in GOP’s tax rollout: President Trump and congressional Republicans are seeking to move the ball forward this week on their efforts to overhaul the tax code.

A group of GOP lawmakers and administration officials known as the “Big Six” on Wednesday will release a long-awaited framework for a tax-code rewrite, expected to include big cuts to the corporate and individual tax rates.

The president will pitch the framework on Wednesday in a speech in Indiana, and House Republicans that day will meet to talk taxes at a retreat.

There is still no legislation, but backers hope the framework gives the tax effort a boost. Here are five things to watch on taxes this week, from Naomi Jagoda: http://bit.ly/2y7JAz6.

 

 SEC chief: Full extent of data breach not known: The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said it would take “substantial” time to determine the full scope a 2016 cybersecurity breach that may have allowed hackers to profit from insider information.

Jay Clayton testified to the Senate Banking Committee one week after revealing that hackers had breached the SEC’s EDGAR corporate filing system, a key hub for financial information. The intruders accessed information from corporate disclosures that are not public.

Several Democrats focused on why it took more than a year for the SEC to realize and reveal it had been hacked, despite the potential consequences.

“We understand the breach happened under your predecessor, but the disclosure — or lack thereof — is all yours,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), the committee’s ranking Democrat, said to Clayton regarding the SEC breach.

“How can you expect companies to do the right thing when your agency is not?”

Clayton, who was confirmed as SEC chairman in May, said he acted as quickly as he could to disclose the breach and bolster the agency’s cyber defenses. I explain here: http://bit.ly/2y7JAPM.

 

Equifax CEO retires after data breach: The chief executive officer of Equifax retired from the company after a data breach affecting approximately 143 million people was reported earlier this month.

Equifax’s board announced Richard Smith’s retirement, which is effective Tuesday, in a statement that also appointed an interim CEO. 

“The Board of Directors appointed current board member, Mark Feidler, to serve as Non-Executive Chairman. Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., who most recently served as President, Asia Pacific, and is a seven-year veteran of the company, has been appointed as interim Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Smith,” the statement said.

“The Board will undertake a search for a new permanent Chief Executive Officer, considering candidates both from within and outside the company. Mr. Smith has agreed to serve as an unpaid adviser to Equifax to assist in the transition.” http://bit.ly/2k0NOCv.

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Overnight Finance. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

See something I missed? Let me know at slane@digital-release.thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N.

 

IRS shares info with Mueller’s probe: The IRS is now sharing information on Trump campaign associates, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, with Robert Mueller’s special counsel office.

CNN reported on Tuesday that the agency is providing documents to Mueller’s prosecutors as the team goes back through 11 years of files to investigate possible financial crimes.

The documents provided include tax return-related documents, such as real estate and banking records. Previous tax-related documents were seized by FBI agents when they raided Manafort’s home in July.

The information the IRS can share is restricted under Title 26 US Code and usually needs a grand jury subpoena to share tax returns with another agency.

It wasn’t clear, according to the report, whether the information provided by the IRS included President Trump’s tax returns.

http://bit.ly/2wV3GHI

 

Senate panel to finally mark up 2018 budget next week: After months of delays and waffling, the Senate Budget Committee is set to mark up its 2018 budget next week, the first week of the fiscal year it is meant to cover.

“The budget committee will be marking up next week, and we plan on moving forward on our next priority, which is reforming the American tax code in a significant way for the first time in 30 years,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Tuesday.

The budget’s instructions on reconciliation, a process to allow Republicans to bypass a Democratic filibuster on tax reform in the Senate, have been a key sticking point.

Last week, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a deficit hawk, struck a deal with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who favors including a major tax cut in the reform, even if it’s unfunded.

The deal would reportedly allow tax writers to include up to $1.5 trillion in unfunded tax cuts in the bill. Corker has insisted that he would not vote for a final tax bill that increased the deficit, and said the deal was an attempt to circumvent problems with strict reconciliation rules. The Hill’s Niv Elis reports: http://bit.ly/2y7Ktrq.

 

Chamber opposes Trump’s Export-Import Bank nominee: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is putting its considerable heft behind the effort of business groups to reject President Trump’s nominee to head up the Export-Import Bank.

The powerful business group sent a letter to Senate Banking Committee leaders saying it could not support former New Jersey Republican lawmaker Scott Garrett to head the agency but that it will back the other four nominees to fill open slots at the Ex-Im Bank.

The Chamber is “extremely concerned” about reports that the bank’s opponents may attempt to derail the confirmations of the other four nominees if Garrett fails to get confirmed, wrote Suzanne Clark, the U.S. Chamber’s senior executive vice president.

“We trust that senators from both parties will reject any attempt to hold qualified nominees who enjoy the support of the majority of the Senate hostage in an attempt to gain leverage for the approval of a nominee who does not enjoy the support of a majority of the Senate,” Clark wrote to Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and ranking member Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). http://bit.ly/2y6SqNG.

 

House tees up do-over vote on FAA bill with hurricane provisions: House lawmakers teed up a short-term aviation package for a do-over vote later this week, after Democrats blocked the bill from passing under a fast-track procedure on Monday.

The House Rules Committee agreed on Tuesday to send a six-month reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to the floor under a closed process that does not permit any amendments. 

The underlying package includes additional provisions to encourage private flood insurance markets, provide tax relief for hurricane victims and extend several expiring public health care programs.

The Rules panel also attached language to the measure that would ensure that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are reimbursed for any costs associated with the tax relief provisions.

A floor vote on the FAA bill is likely to take place Thursday, and the bill is expected to pass, though its path forward in the Senate is less clear. http://bit.ly/2y7LDmM.

 

GOP senators reject combining health, tax reform in 2018: With the latest effort to overhaul ObamaCare dead just days before the Sept. 30 deadline, Senate Republicans are putting the kibosh on suggestions that the effort be combined with tax reform in 2018.

“Heavens no. We’re not going to do that,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Tax Committee. “It would just screw up the whole thing.”

Republicans were relying on a budget process called reconciliation to avert a Democratic filibuster on health care. The health-care specific instructions passed in the 2017 budget expire on Saturday, and Republicans plan on using the 2018 instructions to pass tax reform.

Some, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have suggested broadening the 2018 reconciliation instructions to pave the way for both health care and taxes, a process that could imperil both causes, as they would have to be passed together. http://bit.ly/2y71IJg.

 

Key conservatives open to keeping top tax rate unchanged: Two key House conservatives, Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), are open to keeping the top income tax rates unchanged as part of the Republican tax-reform bill.

“I have no problem if we needed to table any kind of tax relief for that group and put it all toward the middle class,” said Walker, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, a caucus that counts over half of the House GOP in its membership.

“If we do that then we take the main talking points from the Democrats anyway. I think it’s a strategic thing, I think that’s where the president is and I’d have no problem supporting something like that,” he said.

Democrats have repeatedly hammered Republican tax plans as no more than a tax cut for the country’s wealthiest people and have joined with a coalition of advocates called “Not One Penny” to raise opposition to such cuts: http://bit.ly/2y6vWMS.

 

Report: GOP senator doesn’t expect Trump to renominate Yellen: The former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said Tuesday he doesn’t expect President Trump to reappoint Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Janet Yellen after her term ends in February.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told Bloomberg News this morning that he’s spoken to Trump about the Fed’s future and doesn’t believe Yellen will get another term to lead the central bank.

“I believe he will appoint somebody else to take her place,” Shelby said, adding that he’d prefer to see “somebody else in there that’s pro-growth.”

Yellen joined the Fed in 2010 and has served as chairwoman since 2014, presiding over the recovery from the 2007 financial crisis and recession. Unemployment has declined to roughly 4.5 percent over her term, while inflation remains lower than the Fed’s preferred 2 percent benchmark. http://bit.ly/2y6PDE9.

 

McCain committed to ‘bipartisan approach’ on tax reform: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is calling for a bipartisan approach to tax reform.

“We need to do it in a bipartisan fashion,” McCain said, according to Bloomberg. “I am committed, as I’ve said before, to a bipartisan approach, such as we’ve been doing in the Armed Services Committee for the last 53 years.” 

McCain made similar remarks during the Republican push to repeal ObamaCare.

After voting in July to allow Republicans to move forward on a bill that would repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, McCain delivered a speech in which he called for a “return to regular order” and more bipartisanship.

Days later, he bucked his party when he voted against a “skinny” repeal measure, arguing that the bill was rushed and lacked bipartisan support. http://bit.ly/2y5JdoD.

 

Trump targets North Korean banks, workers in new sanctions: The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed fresh sanctions on North Korea.

The penalties take aim at eight North Korean banks, as well as 26 North Korean nationals operating out of China, Russia, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.

“This further advances our strategy to fully isolate North Korea in order to achieve our broader objectives of a peaceful and denuclearized Korean peninsula,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “This action is also consistent with UN Security Council Resolutions.”

The new sanctions come a day after North Korea’s foreign minister said a tweet by President Trump saying that the North “won’t be around much longer” amounted to a declaration of war and threatened to shoot down U.S. aircraft outside of North Korean airspace. http://bit.ly/2y65cfh.

 

Stock trading apps rife with security problems, says new research: Top stock-trading mobile apps have security problems that are easy to uncover and exploit, to the point that they could be used to hijack accounts or profile victims for other types of crime, according to new research.

Alejandro Hernandez at IOActive looked at 21 top trading apps, including TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, E-Trade, Fidelity and others.

“It’s certainly worse than I was expecting,” he told The Hill.

Twelve of the 21 apps did not validate the security certificate for, making it possible for an attacker to eavesdrop or even alter logins or transactions.
Two did not use encryption at all.

All but one of the apps would operate on a phone that had been “rooted,” meaning that core permissions for who could have full access to the phone. Banking apps commonly will not operate on rooted phones. http://bit.ly/2y7cE9Q.

 

Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@digital-release.thehill.com, vneedham@digital-release.thehill.com, njagoda@digital-release.thehill.com and nelis@digital-release.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane,  @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis