The Senate on 6 August voted 51 to 50 along party lines to begin floor action on a revised “Inflation Reduction Act'' budget reconciliation bill. The tie-breaking vote in the evenly divided Senate was provided by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Debate on the proposed legislation began after the support of Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) was secured by making changes to the July 27 version of the Inflation Reduction Act, which had reflected an agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).
Key tax changes in the revised version include modifying the proposed 15% book minimum tax (BMT) on corporations with profits over $1 billion to disregard certain cost recovery expenditures (the BMT is proposed to be effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2022), and dropping a proposed change to the tax treatment of “carried interest.” In addition, a provision was added to the bill to impose a 1% excise tax on a publicly traded US corporation for the value of any of its stock that is repurchased by the corporation (effective for repurchases of stock after December 31, 2022); a similar provision was part of the “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill passed by the House last November.