The optional standard mileage rates for business use of a vehicle will increase significantly in 2019, after increasing slightly last year, the IRS announced Friday (Notice 2019-2). For business use of a car, van, pickup truck, or panel truck, the rate for 2019 will be 58 cents per mile up from 54.5 cents per mile in 2018. Taxpayers can use the optional standard mileage rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile.

The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday evening approved its version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, sending the bill to the full Senate for debate and a vote. The committee had spent the week amending the bill, and the final version includes some changes beyond those included in the chairman’s mark released on Tuesday. (For prior coverage, see “Senate Finance Committee Modifies Tax Reform Proposal.”)

The Senate is expected to take up the bill after it returns from its Thanksgiving recess.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill, H.R. 1, by a vote of 227–205, on Thursday afternoon, with all Democrats and 13 Republicans voting no.

The legislation as passed had not been amended since its approval by the House Ways and Means Committee last week (see “House Ways and Means Approves Amended Tax Cuts and Jobs Bill,” for details).

The bill features four tax brackets for individuals, instead of the current seven; a larger standard deduction; the repeal of many itemized deductions; a reduction of the corporate income tax rate to 20%; repeal of the alternative minimum tax and, after 2023, the estate and generation-skipping taxes; and many other changes.