Endowment Tax Carveouts Ruled Out of Bounds by Senate Referee

Exemptions for some religious schools must be removed from Republicans’ plan to impose a major tax hike on some of the largest university endowments, the Senate’s scorekeeper ruled early Friday.

The Senate’s parliamentarian said two carveouts to lawmakers’ proposal sought to create a tiered tax regime with a top rate of 8%, Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement. The current tax rate for investment income of certain large private colleges and universities that are subject to the levy is 1.4%.

“Republicans also conceded that a proposal to target schools based on international student enrollment ...