Washington Wire
No One is Ready for the CTA
Just in time for Thanksgiving, Sunday’s Wall Street Journal’s editorial page highlighted our Main Street letter calling for a one-year delay of the Corporate Transparency Act’s reporting requirements. Appropriately titled The Coming Deluge for Small Business, the article reads:
The CTA assigns the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) with identifying shell companies used for illegal transactions and creating a registry of businesses with less than $5 million in annual sales and …
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Congress Can Still Prevent a Regulatory Trainwreck
With just a month to go before the Corporate Transparency Act’s reporting requirements take effect, it’s abundantly clear – not to mention extremely worrying – that federal regulators simply do not have their act together when it comes to implementing the new law.
Recognizing this, the Main Street business community today called on lawmakers to delay the Corporate Transparency Act’s reporting requirements by one year, which would give the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) …
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Reality-Based Taxation
Actual tax policy remains on hold in Congress (listen to our recent “Talking Taxes in a Truck” for that discussion) but there’s been some activity in recent weeks that’s worth highlighting nonetheless. Specifically:
- Yesterday’s Finance hearing entitled, “Examining How the Tax Code Affects High-Income Individuals and Tax Planning Strategies”
- Wednesday’s Senate Budget hearing entitled, “Fairness and Fiscal Responsibility: Cracking Down on Wealthy Tax Cheats”
- A new Auten/Splinter paper examining income inequality …
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Talking Taxes in a Truck Episode 31: Tax Grab Bag with Ryan Ellis – IRS Funding, SALTy Rumors, Year-End Tax Bill, and Mo(o)re
Congress is in overdrive tackling its legislative to-do list and things are starting to pile up on the tax policy front. To help us keep track of it all we’re joined by repeat podcast guest Ryan Ellis, Enrolled Agent and President of the Center for a Free Economy. Ryan kicks things off with a look at the latest developments on Capitol Hill, including the election of House Speaker Mike Johnson, rumors of a SALT cap …
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Competing Tax Reforms (Part 1)
Massive deficits, the fiscal cliff, and Social Security’s pending insolvency are jump-starting a long overdue debate over real tax reform – specifically, how should we best reorganize the tax code to survive the fiscal hurdles we know are coming?
Three distinct voices have emerged recently to offer their views. Which offers the best hope for success? What impact would each have on small and family-owned businesses? Here’s a review of the competing plans, together …
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IRS Ramps Up
Doug Holtz-Eakin has a thoughtful blog post this week on the deterioration of our “voluntary” compliance tax system.
Whenever the term “voluntary” is used when discussing taxes, the tendency is for the audience to bust out laughing. Okay, sure, but it’s a real concept that used to be the heart of our tax system. Rather than send tax collectors door-to-door to make collections, our system relied on taxpayers calculating their own liability and then sending in …
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Tax Implications of the Speaker Battle
Last week, eight House Republicans, led by Representative Matt Gaetz (FL), voted with the entire Democratic conference to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. What implications does this action have for Main Street businesses and tax policy? Here’s our take.
Short-Term Tax Outlook
When the House votes for a new Speaker and gets back to business, its focus will return to those remaining appropriations bills necessary to fund the government. Last month’s CR gave Congress an extra 45 …
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The Importance of NSBA’s Lawsuit
The House Financial Services Committee held a markup yesterday to consider twelve pieces of legislation. Notably absent was the Protecting Small Business Information Act (H.R. 4035), a bill to delay the Corporate Transparency Act’s January 1, 2024 effective date. The Main Street business community recently voiced its support for that legislation and had hoped to see it taken up by the panel.
The Committee’s failure to act raises two key points.
First, it is obvious …
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