2704 - The S Corporation Association

2704 and Family Businesses

Remember the Obama Administration’s family-business valuation rules? They were proposed back in August and resulted in such a backlash from the family business community that Treasury received nearly 29,000 comments during the 90-day comment period. That’s a record as best as we can tell.

So where do the rules stand now? Here’s the latest.

Two weeks ago, President Trump signed an Executive Order calling on Treasury to review all “significant tax regulations” issued last year and 1) identify those that are burdensome, complex or exceed Treasury’s authority, 2) issue a report within 60 days listing those identified rules, and 3) …

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admin2019-01-31T22:50:18+00:00May 9, 2017|

2704 Comment Period Closes Big

The official comment period on the proposed Section 2704 regulations closed yesterday, with nearly 10,000 comments filed! You can review those comments here, but a cursory review this morning made clear they were nearly unanimous in their opposition to the Treasury action.

Eventually, all the comments submitted will be accessible at the regulations.gov website, but until then, here are some of the more significant comment letters we’ve seen. Definitely worth a read if you have clients or businesses affected by the proposed rule:

S Corporation Association
Family Business Estate Tax Coalition (NFIB-led coalition)
American Institute of Certified …

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admin2019-02-01T19:49:54+00:00November 3, 2016|

S-Corp Submits Valuation Comments

Yesterday, the S Corporation Association submitted its formal comments to the IRS on the pending Section 2704 valuation rules. You can read all 15 pages of comments here, but the basic message of the submission was that Treasury should discard this effort and start over. As the comments conclude:

Promulgation of the Proposed Regulations in their current form and scope will generate significant uncertainty and constitute a significant impediment for the continuity of family-controlled businesses. The Proposed Regulations inappropriately and illegally discriminate against family controlled businesses in form and effect. If Treasury is inclined to promulgate regulations to address perceived …

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admin2019-02-01T19:49:54+00:00October 18, 2016|

Business Community Rallies

Thousands of family businesses signed a letter this week calling on the Department of the Treasury to withdraw proposed regulations that target family businesses for sharply higher gift and estate taxes.

Getting that many private companies to weigh in on a public issue like this one is simply astounding, and should serve as an indication of just how threatening these regulations are to the ability of family businesses to survive from one generation to the next. As Law360 reported on the letter:

NAM released a letter with more than 50 pages of signatures urging Lew to pull the proposed regulations, …

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admin2019-02-01T19:49:54+00:00September 30, 2016|

Response to Valuation Rules Continues

The Main Street Employers coalition sent a letter to congressional tax writers yesterday opposing the proposed rules on estate valuations and calling on Congress to weigh in with Treasury on the issue. From Politico:

The business community is escalating its efforts to beat back new Treasury regulations on the estate tax, which have somewhat fallen under the radar due to all the attention given to the Section 385 earnings stripping rules. A coalition called Parity for Main Street Employers sent leading congressional tax writers a letter asking Congress to urge Treasury to pull back rules that would make it harder …

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admin2019-02-01T19:49:54+00:00September 23, 2016|