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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Nov. 114, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 125 ~ 55 of 66
of the losses by the close of trading.
Might the implementation delay be traded for a smaller corporate tax cut, something above 20 percent? Trump actually had been demanding 15 percent and reportedly was initially furious at the 20 percent
gure. The issue is setting the corporate rate at a level that experts and tax writers believe would bring the U.S. closer to its overseas competitors.
The electric car industry — notably makers Tesla and Chevrolet — and producers of wind power for generating electricity are losers under the House bill. The tax credit of up to $7,500 for plug-in electric vehicles would be repealed, and the credit for wind energy would be reduced. But the Senate version retains the incentives.
The loss of tax credits for renewable energy would free billions to help pay for the corporate tax cuts in the legislation. But in addition to environmentalists’ objections, the prospect also angers some Republican senators, including powerful Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who has vowed to defend the credit.
There’s a special rate for businesses whose pro ts are counted in the owners’ personal tax returns. Mil- lions of U.S. businesses use this “pass-through” format. The House bill taxes many of them at a maximum 25 percent, down from 39.6 percent currently, and adds a lower minimum rate. The Senate version would set a new 17.4 percent deduction for “pass-through” income, aimed to help smaller businesses.
Saudi arrest of Binladin family scion shatters royal entente By AYA BATRAWY, Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Among those caught in the unprecedented arrests this week of top princes, wealthy businessmen and senior of cials was the scion of one of Saudi Arabia’s most recognizable families: Bakr Binladin, the chairman of the kingdom’s pre-eminent contractor — and Osama bin Laden’s half-brother.
It was a stunning end to a decades-old alliance between the ruling Al Saud and Binladin families that saw the Saudi Binladin Group secure a near-monopoly on mega-expansion projects in Islam’s two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, throughout the reigns of successive Saudi monarchs.
The government says 201 people have been taken into custody in the purge, which comes amid an anti- corruption probe it says uncovered at least $100 billion in graft and embezzlement.
Saudi critics and experts have called the arrests a bold and risky move by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aimed at consolidating power as he sidelines potential rivals, silences critics and dismantles alliances built with other branches of the royal family.
The 32-year-old crown prince, who is the son of King Salman and is popularly known by his initials MBS, is leading the anti-corruption investigation. He’s also the force behind the so-called Vision 2030 plan, a blueprint for how to restructure the country and wean it from its dependence on oil revenue.
The arrests of Binladin and the others not only signal the end of old alliances, but also speak to the larger demands being made on the business community to pay into the crown prince’s economic vision in an era of lower oil prices.
“This is the beginning of the rise of economic nationalism,” said Ayham Kamel, head of the Middle East and North Africa division of the Eurasia Group.
A centerpiece of that plan is NEOM, a $500 billion project that promises to be the world’s most futuristic and technologically-advanced city, which was unveiled by the crown prince at a headline-grabbing global investment conference in Saudi Arabia last month.
But instead of receiving major pledges to the project by Saudi business leaders, MBS “got deafening silence”, Kamel said.
Since the 1950’s, the Binladins have been the royal family’s go-to contractor for some of its most sensitive projects, including construction of private palaces in the immediate boon years after oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.
As the royal family spent lavishly on trips abroad and new palaces at home, the Binladins became their creditors, as well as contractors.