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Main Street Tax Certainty in the House (and Senate)

Earlier today Senator Steve Daines and Congressman Lloyd Smucker reintroduced their Main Street Tax Certainty Act, legislation to make permanent the Section 199A deduction. The bills mirror S. 1706 and H.R.  4706 from last Congress, meaning the campaign to protect Main Street from looming tax hikes is once again a bicameral and bipartisan effort.

The legislation introduced today builds on our prior success in a big way. Whereas the previous House bill garnered support from 91 original cosponsors – a significant feat in and of itself – Congressman Smucker’s bill was released today with the backing of 151 original cosponsors. It’s

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2025-01-23T22:47:21+00:00January 23, 2025|

Main Street Rallies Around 199A Permanence

More than 230 trade associations came out in support today of legislation to make permanent the Section 199A deduction. Appropriately named the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, the bill is set to be reintroduced tomorrow by Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Representative Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), two of the Main Street business community’s staunchest allies.

The deduction was enacted in 2017 to encourage job creation and new investment by private businesses.  It also helps private companies compete with public corporations. Without the deduction, pass-throughs would face rates up to 16 percentage points higher than their publicly-traded competitors. The challenge is

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2025-01-22T16:48:04+00:00January 22, 2025|

The C SALT Loophole

Last month, the Bipartisan Policy Center put forward some suggestions on how to address the pending sunset of the State and Local Tax (SALT) cap, including rolling back the pass-through “SALT Parity” laws we helped enact in 36 states.  A couple of thoughts.

Pass-Through Parity

First, the SALT cap played a big role in our efforts to ensure pass-through businesses were treated fairly under the TCJA.  The SALT cap raises huge amounts of revenue ($100 billion-plus per year) and about 20-30 percent of that is paid on pass-through income.  For comparison, that’s about half the total revenue impact of the

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2025-01-16T19:22:08+00:00January 16, 2025|

199A Permanence Dominates Tax Hearing

The House Ways & Means Committee today kicked off the new Congress with a hearing focused on the family and business provisions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But the topic that took center stage is one that’s near and dear to the hearts of millions of Main Street businesses nationwide – addressing the looming expiration of the Section 199A deduction.

The panel first heard testimony from Michelle Gallagher, an S-Corp Advisor and accountant with decades of experience serving individual and family-owned businesses (and who can be seen sporting our “I Love 199A pin!”).



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2025-01-14T21:33:21+00:00January 14, 2025|

Big Beautiful Bill(s)

Only a couple of days into the new Congress and they’re ready to throw hands!

The Chairman’s frustration is justified. The obsession with process over policy is getting old. As Senator Bob Dole used to say, you should talk about your accomplishments, policies, and facts first.  If you don’t have any of those, then fall back on process. “You can always talk about process.” Focusing on process exclusively shifts attention away from the underlying policies and their real-world consequences for Main Street and elsewhere.

It’s also a waste of time.  At the

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2025-01-08T17:32:36+00:00January 8, 2025|