A couple of quick updates on the Ways & Means “Tax Team” front. First, the Main Street Employers Coalition today submitted comments making the case for a permanent Section 199A pass-through deduction.

The letter is addressed to the Main Street Tax Team, one of ten teams organized by Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith to identify solutions to the 2025 fiscal cliff, and it covers the various key aspects of the 199A debate – why the provision is important, how Congress should define parity, why can’t family businesses just convert, etc.  As the letter notes:

The Main Street Employers Coalition (MSEC) …

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Yesterday’s Senate Budget Committee hearing produced an interesting exchange that caught our attention. The hearing was entitled “Making Wall Street Pay Its Fair Share,” but when it came to defining exactly what “fair” means, the supposedly expert majority witnesses dissolved into an incoherent, dissembling mob.

It all started when Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) posed the question to the first committee witness, Sarah Anderson from the Institute for Policy Studies:

Sen. Johnson: What percentage of an American’s income should the federal government be able to extract? What’s the maximum tax rate?

Anderson: I’d be happy to give you my preferred top marginal …

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We like Marty Sullivan. He always has something interesting to say. His latest piece criticizing Section 199A is a bit of a disappointment, however.

Where to start? Marty says the pass-through community was “seething” following the resolution of the 2012 fiscal cliff – we weren’t.  He says family businesses can just elect to be C corps if they don’t like paying higher rates – except they pay more either way (we’ve covered that one many, many times). And he says we should reject 199A because it excludes certain industries – wasn’t our idea.

But those are quibbles. …

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