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Even before it passed the House and headed to Senate on 16 November 2017, criticism mounted around one provision retained as part of in the Republican-sponsored Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Though it is true the deduction in question benefits golf course owners like President Donald Trump, it precedes his administration. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which passed in the House in a 222-209 vote, retains a tax deduction allowing course owners — like the president's Trump Foundation — to claim a deduction by allotting a portion of their property toward conservation purposes. Republican Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) called the easement a tax racket in a report he released on 5 April 2017. His report included an explanation of how the deduction worked: The Senate has not voted on its version of the bill. We contacted Flake seeking further comment. The conservation easement tax deduction is not new to tax legislation; it was first enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1976. That bill included deductions for charitable contributions of partial interests in property for conservation purposes, including: A month after Flake released his report, a separate study by Adam Looney, a senior fellow at the non-partisan Brookings Institution also criticized the easement deduction: According to Looney's report, $971 million in deductions were claimed in 2012. Two years later, that figure increased to $3.2 billion.
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