private sector - The S Corporation Association

Section 199A Deduction Needed to Provide Pass-Throughs Tax Parity with C Corporations

A new presentation on the Section 199A deduction from the Joint Committee on Taxation has gotten people’s attention, particularly this slide:

The slide prompted Senator Ron Wyden, the Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee, to observe, “These are not the struggling small business owners we were told this provision would benefit.”

The Ranking Member’s response is misdirected, however. The 199A deduction was not an effort to reduce taxes on small businesses, but rather an attempt to maintain tax parity for pass-through businesses of all sizes. Without 199A, Main Street …

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Should Main Street Businesses Elect C Corp Status? No!

The idea that corporate-only tax reform isn’t so bad because Main Street businesses can elect C corporation status has been argued for years. But should Congress reduce the corporate tax rate with the expectation that pass-through businesses will just switch to C status to access the lower rates? The answer is no. Here are the main points:

It’s the opposite of tax reform. The corporate-only approach to tax reform is effectively “anti-tax reform.” It will return us to the pre-1986 era, when corporate tax rates were significantly lower than individual rates and tax gaming and income sheltering were rampant.
It increases the …

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