Christine Walizer, Author at The S Corporation Association

Main Street Responds to House SALT Bill

Yesterday, the Main Street Employers coalition sent a letter to House tax writers raising concerns with their plan to provide temporary relief from the SALT deduction cap by raising the top tax rate applied to pass-through business income. As the letter states:

Individually and family owned businesses organized as S corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships are the heart of the American economy. They employ the majority of workers, and they contribute the most to our national income. They also pay the majority of business taxes. A recent study by EY found that pass-through businesses pay 51 percent …

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admin2019-12-11T15:18:16+00:00December 11, 2019|

Long-Term Tax Policy Outlook

Whoever claimed there’s not a “dime’s worth of difference” between the political parties clearly was not referring to American politics in 2020. For tax policy alone, the difference is in the trillions.

On one hand, a Trump victory would likely mean continued divided government, possible consideration (although not adoption) of a middle-class tax cut, and a resumption of the status quo. If Trump has a fifty percent chance of winning next fall, then there’s a fifty percent chance your taxes don’t change substantially in the next few years.

On the other, a Democratic victory would likely result in Democrats controlling both the …

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admin2019-11-22T18:24:45+00:00November 22, 2019|

S Corps and Income Inequality

Much of today’s tax policy debate is premised on the notion that income inequality is bad and getting worse. Economists Piketty and Saez have published numerous papers making this case (here, and here), and Saez recently wrote a book arguing for a wealth tax to address this inequality. But what if their premise is simply wrong? What if the whole income inequality narrative itself is built on a faulty foundation?

It’s been known for a long time that Piketty’s and Saez’s estimates fail to fully account for missing income sources, shrinking households, and the effects of tax policy on …

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admin2019-10-31T20:15:14+00:00October 31, 2019|

EY on Tax Parity

EY has published a new study commissioned by the S Corporation Association entitled “Large S Corporations and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: The economic footprint of the pass-through sector and the impact of the TCJA.” The study’s author, Robert Carroll, will be featured at the Main Street briefing today held in the Russell Senate Office Building. You can read the full study here.

Key takeaways from Bob’s work include:

Pass-Through Tax Parity: In terms of both effective and marginal tax rates, the analysis shows that prior to TCJA, large S corporations and C corporations faced similar tax rates. …

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admin2019-10-25T18:43:24+00:00October 24, 2019|

Wealth Taxes Pose Existential Threat to Private Businesses

The Peterson Institute held a “Combating Inequality” event last week that included a vigorous debate over wealth taxes. The heavyweight match between Emmanuel Saez – the leading advocate for wealth taxes these days – and Larry Summers in particular is worth watching.

One aspect missing from the debate, however, was how wealth taxes would handcuff successful private businesses. Summer briefly touches on the challenge his family’s hardware store would have paying the tax, but there is so much more to it. Wealth taxes:

Are far larger than their headline numbers suggest;
Paid on top of all existing taxes;
Hit hardest …

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admin2019-10-22T14:03:18+00:00October 22, 2019|