Christine Walizer, Author at The S Corporation Association

Ways and Means Hearing

S-corporation taxation took center stage on the Hill last week.

Carrying the S-Corp flag before the House Ways and Means Committee was Association Advisor Tom Nichols of Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols S.C. Tom had been invited to represent the S Corporation Association and testify at a hearing entitled “Tax Treatment of Closely-Held Businesses in the Context of Tax Reform” along with five other witnesses representing other trade groups and academia. Tom’s testimony made clear to the tax writers what we’d like to see when they pursue tax reform:

“As much as possible, …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:28+00:00March 13, 2012|

Taxing Business Investment

Our position on tax reform is simple and outlined in the letter 45 business groups sent to Congress last fall:

Pursue comprehensive reform that includes both the corporate and individual tax codes;
Keep the top rates on corporate and individual income low and at the same level; and
Continue to reduce the incidence of the double tax on business income.

This last principle is premised on the idea that the pass-through structure is the correct way to tax business income, as Eric Toder told the Senate Finance Committee last year:

Senator Snowe: I appreciate that. Does either one of you want to comment, Dr. …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:28+00:00March 2, 2012|

Administration Offers Corporate Tax Reform

The Administration released its outline for “business” tax reform today. Described by its authors as more than a set of principles but less than a fully-realized plan, the 22-page joint Treasury-White House release raises more questions for us than it answers.

Core to the plan is a reduction in the top corporate tax rate from 35 to 28 percent. Pass-through businesses would not benefit from the rate reduction. Manufacturing businesses would see a further reduction down to 25 percent through the use of a manufacturing deduction. Advanced manufacturing would receive a yet more generous deduction.

To offset the cost of the lower …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:28+00:00February 22, 2012|

President’s Budget and S Corps

The President’s budget came out today, and despite the fact that it and the many proposals it contains are unlikely to move through Congress, there are a number of items of specific concern to S corporations that are worth a look. You can find the overall budget documents at the OMB website. For S corporations, the items that jump out at us include:

Expiration of current rates for higher income taxpayers.
Imposition of a new “Buffett Tax” on taxpayers earning more than $1 million.
Principles for tax reform.

We’ll get to these items, but first, a note about baselines. One possible area of …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:28+00:00February 13, 2012|

Extensions for Main Street

Three cheers for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) for fighting to move extensions of expired tax provisions benefiting Main Street businesses! Senators Snowe and Landrieu introduced the Small Business Tax Extenders Act of 2012 (S. 2050) this week to extend through 2012 those tax provisions benefiting Main Street businesses that were allowed to expire last year – including, an S-CORP priority, built-in gains (BIG) relief. Other provisions include extensions of the:

Temporary 100 percent exclusion of gains on certain small business stock;
5-year carryback of general business credits of eligible small businesses;
AMT rules for general business credits of …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:28+00:00February 3, 2012|