More on the way out

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With help from Toby Eckert

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: The migration of GOP staffers who worked on last year’s tax law, H.R. 1 (115),to the private sector just won’t stop.

The newest example: Drew Maloney, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for legislative affairs, will leave the administration next week, and looks all set to land atop private equity’s main trade association, Nancy Cook and your Morning Tax author report.

Maloney played a key behind-the-scenes role in shepherding through last year’s tax cut, in no small part because he was already a known quantity to GOP tax writers because of his extensive D.C. experience and because he quickly found himself a core part of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s inner circle. (Maloney’s a longtime lobbyist, former GOP leadership staffer and even the head of legislative affairs for Mitt Romney’s presidential transition team.) Tax watchers also say Maloney would be a natural fit at the American Investment Council, where he would replace Mike Sommers, the longtime chief of staff to former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who’s moving on to the American Petroleum Institute.

AND WITH THAT, another week here at Morning Tax is in the books. A hearty congrats to Tax Editor Toby Eckert and the legions of other Washington hockey team fans who got to watch their team get a title on Thursday. (Morning Tax’s favorite Twitter joke of the evening: Will they grease the Washington Monument?)

And I mean, why not? Today marks 59 years since the post office and the U.S. Navy teamed up from something called “missile mail” — you guessed it, 3,000 pieces of mail shot out via cruise missile. (It was a test, so it wasn’t anyone’s actual mail. Also, the first American attempt at “rocket mail” had come 23 years earlier.)

Fire those tips our way. Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Twitter: @berniebecker3, @tobyeckert, @brian_faler, @AaronELorenzo, @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Tax.

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FUN TIMES IN QUEBEC: A lot of people have been wondering how the G-7 summit starting today would play out, because of the frustrations that the leaders from Canada, France and elsewhere have expressed about President Donald Trump’s flurry of tariffs. And if Thursday is any indicator, the next two days could get rowdy, as Brent D. Griffiths reported: Trump has already announced he’ll leave the summit in Quebec hours before the other leaders on Saturday morning, and the president, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and President Emmanuel Macron of France telegraphed that the proceedings could get testy.

Addendum No. 1: Senate Republican leaders are maneuvering to tamp down the efforts from Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and others to give Congress the power to block Trump’s tariffs, after the White House hit steel and aluminum tariffs from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. There’s no doubt that the proposal has its share of support among Senate Republicans, but Elana Schor and Burgess Everett report that “allowing it a vote on the Senate floor in the coming days is a step too far for leadership.” (Among the measure’s problems: A blue slip issue, given that revenue measures are supposed to start in the House.)

Addendum No. 2: The White House’s own economic analysis of its trade agenda found it would hurt the U.S. economy, The New York Times’ Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport reported. “The findings from the White House Council of Economic Advisers have been circulated only internally and not publicly released, as is often the case with the council’s work, making the exact economic projections unknown. But the determination comes as top White House officials continue to insist publicly that Mr. Trump’s trade approach will be ‘massively good for the U.S. economy.’”

GUILTY OF WANTING TO CHANGE GILTI: House Democrats, led by Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, have rolled out a bill that would revamp the international system Republicans crafted in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. One of the big changes in the proposal: Forcing companies paying the minimum tax on Global Intangible Low Taxed Income (GILTI) to pay on a country-by-country basis, instead of what’s essentially a worldwide minimum tax right now. Richard Phillips of the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has a more extensive (and sympathetic) primer on the measure here.

DON’T LEAVE ME! OR ELSE: Walmart is suing one of its former top tax executives for jumping ship to Amazon, saying she breached a non-compete agreement. “Lisa Wadlin told Walmart in January she was considering resigning as senior vice president, chief tax officer, but the company did not learn she was joining Amazon until separation papers were signed on May 15, according to the lawsuit,” Reuters reports. “Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said Wadlin’s knowledge of its strategic plans ‘would be of immense benefit to Amazon,’ according to the lawsuit, which was filed late Wednesday in Delaware’s Court of Chancery.” As Reuters notes, Walmart has been investing heavily in its online operations to compete with the likes of Amazon.

LAP OF LUXURY: Rooftop pool. On-site gyms. Tricked-out lounges. Student housing sure has come a long way from the cramped dorms of yesteryear — at least at some colleges, and thanks to tax-exempt bonds. “Municipal-bond sales for new student housing projects backed only by rents grew to about $930 million last year, a 45 percent increase from a decade before, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.” The problem is that the colleges are having trouble finding tenants to shell out the big monthly rents for the digs, like the ones described above at Texas A&M. “Unable to pay operating costs and service $360 million of bonds with project revenue, the non-profit owner of the Texas A&M complex, National Campus and Community Development Corporation, agreed May 17 to give bondholders more control over the project,” Bloomberg notes. “Texas A&M also agreed to advertise the complex on its campus housing website.”

THE GRASS IS GREENER: Wondering how the cap on the state and local tax deduction is affecting real estate? The Wall Street Journal cites some anecdotal evidence that it’s causing some homeowners, at least wealthier ones, to consider their geographic options. “While it’s too early to quantify the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which became effective on Jan. 1, some real-estate professionals say they are beginning to see early signs of an exodus to low-tax states,” real estate writer Robyn A. Friedman reports. “‘I’ve seen a huge increase in the number of clients who want to purchase in Palm Beach to establish residency in Florida,’ says Chris Leavitt, director of luxury sales at Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Palm Beach. ‘And there has been a pickup since Jan. 1.”’

INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

THE POPULISTS STRIKE: Italy’s new 5 Star Movement/League coalition won’t raise the country’s sales tax, according to one of the government’s top officials. That’s despite needing to find an estimated 12.5 billion euros ($14.8 billion) in savings if it wants to avoid an automatic increase in the tax because of deficit targets the country missed earlier, Reuters reports. Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio sounded somewhat Trumpian when he told retail lobbyists, “We are committed to keeping our accounts under control, (but) we also know that ... we have to renegotiate some conditions at the EU level which Italy can no longer sustain. We will do this by discussing with the other countries but also sometimes by saying ‘no.’”

HELLO, CANADA: Doug Ford was elected Ontario’s premier on Thursday, an attention-grabbing outcome if for no other reason than his brother was the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford. But the new government also could cause some interesting tax dynamics in Ontario, Bloomberg noted before Thursday’s vote, in calling Ford both an “irreverent populist promising tax cuts” and a “Trump-like populist dangling tax cuts.” And this will sound a bit familiar to Americans: Ford’s Progressive Conservatives “are promising to balance the budget over a ‘responsible time-frame’ even as they pledge to cut personal and corporate taxes, lower hydro rates and increase spending on health care and infrastructure.”

STATE NEWS

THINKING A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY: New Jersey lawmakers are contemplating seeking to raise $700 million a year in new taxes from corporations — though only over two years, as our Ryan Hutchins and Katherine Landergan report out of Trenton. Still, the proposal circulating in the Democratic-controlled legislature would amount to a serious break from Gov. Phil Murphy, also a Democrat, who’s been pushing a new tax on millionaires. “The business tax envisioned would impose a 3 percent surcharge on companies with more than $1 million in gross annual earnings, a concept Senate President Steve Sweeney first proposed in March. Sweeney did not say at the time, however, that the higher tax rate should sunset after two years.” Democratic lawmakers are also considering a tax amnesty program that could chip in an extra $150 million in revenue for the next fiscal year.

QUICK LINKS

It’s still a bit tricky trying to understand just what the public thinks of the tax cut.

Jordan pulls back on tax that spurred days of protests.

The Tax Policy Center has some suggestions for the GOP’s Tax Cuts 2.0.

Plus: A deeper look at the Peruvian chicken liquidity issue.

DID YOU KNOW?

Ontario’s Treasure Island is said to be the largest island in the world that’s located in a lake that’s located on an island that’s located in a lake. (Really.)