Key senate tax reform vote delayed until Friday

Tax reform in the US introduced by congressional Republicans and Donald Trump hit another stumbling block on Thursday after a key vote in the Senate was pushed back until Friday.

The bill includes $1.4trn of tax cuts over the next decade, and needs the support of almost all the Republicans in the chamber or it faces the possibility of being rejected.

The delay arrived after a Senate official rejected the use of a mechanism to trigger tax increases if new revenue did not cover the cost of the massive cuts.

Voting was scheduled to take place in Washington at 16:00 GMT on Friday, in which the Republicans hoped to overcome a major hurdle in passing the legislation.

Congressional analysts expressed doubts on Thursday that the tax plan would pay for itself through faster growth in the US economy, the argument of Trump and the Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.

According to the projections from the Joint Committee on Taxation, the economy may receive a boost of around $400bn from the legislation, well short of the $1.4trn cost of the cuts.

Some key Republicans such as Tennessee senator Bob Corker have said they would not back any bill which increases the country’s deficit.