Washington Wire
Greater Fool Markets
In economics, the “Greater Fool” theory holds that investors buy overpriced assets expecting others will pay more for them later. So a stock or real estate bubble will continue until the proverbial “last fool” jumps in, at which point there’s nobody left to keep the bubble going and it bursts.
We need an analogous theory for tax policy these days. States like California, New York, and Washington continue to raise taxes and otherwise create an environment …
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Senate Joins CTA Relief Effort
More good news on the CTA front. Fresh on the heels of the House Financial Services Committee advancing CTA relief, the Senate has stepped up with legislation of its own. Senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced a bill this week that mirrors the House approach, codifying Treasury’s March 2025 rule limiting beneficial ownership information reporting to foreign entities only, while also requiring FinCEN to delete the personal data already collected …
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Tax Day Headlines Miss the Full Story
Recent news coverage suggests that the Working Families Tax Cut Act was a bust. Here’s Politico’s Bernie Becker when asked if this tax filing season has lived up to expectations:
The short answer is no… it wasn’t just one person promising $1,000. It was a key line they said over and over again. When you get refunds a third of the way there, there’s no way to suggest anything but that they overpromised.
But the promise …
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House Panel Moves CTA Relief
As we previewed recently, the House Financial Services Committee yesterday advanced legislation that would repeal the Corporate Transparency Act’s reporting requirements for over 30 million American businesses. The measure – as amended and approved by the panel – codifies a Treasury Department rule limiting the CTA’s scope only to foreign entities, while protecting sensitive information already collected under the state by requiring a purge of the beneficial ownership database.
It’s a huge win for the …
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Full Court Press on CTA
Today’s piece by the Washington Post Editorial Board is a helpful reminder that while the Corporate Transparency Act has been knocked down in the past year, the fight continues. As the Post summarizes, the CTA deserves to be repealed:
At a practical level, the law is ineffective because it adds a new reporting requirement to stop behavior that is already illegal. The businesses that would abide by the Corporate Transparency Act already follow the law, …
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Talking Taxes in a Truck Episode 49: Ryan Ellis on Selling the WTFC, Reconciliation 2.0, SALT Games, and More
Tax season is in full swing, and on this episode we’re joined again by Ryan Ellis, who brings a front-line perspective to the discussion as an IRS Enrolled Agent. His message is a timely one: Americans are benefiting in a big way from the Working Families Tax Cut Act, but too often don’t connect those lower tax bills to the policy changes enacted last year, an important reminder as we head into a midterm cycle …
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New York’s SALT Follies
As the NY State Assembly extends the debate over its budget, here’s more on the SALT Parity “haircuts” included in their plan. These haircuts will hurt thousands of small and large New York pass-throughs, accelerate the “highest in the nation” taxpayer migration out of the state, and give credence to the PTET critics. In other words, they’re a really bad idea.
S-Corp initiated its SALT Parity campaign to level the playing field with …
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The Main Street Case for the Working Families Tax Cuts
A broad coalition of Main Street organizations is making the case for the Working Families Tax Cut Act and what it means for the businesses that drive the American economy.
Earlier today, around 100 trade associations signed onto a letter thanking lawmakers for enacting the historic tax relief last year. The letter was organized by our Main Street Employers Coalition and highlights the bill’s real, lasting benefits to the pass-through businesses that employ the majority …
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