The Gazette features an op-ed by S Corporation Association President Brian Reardon on how Americans really feel about raising taxes on individually- and family-owned businesses and farms:

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The Senate needs to decide how to pay for the massive, $3.5 trillion spending plan announced last week, but according to a Punchbowl News poll, only 37% of congressional staffers believe it is likely Congress will pass a tax bill by the end of 2022. Among Democratic staffers, just half think it is likely.

 Why so pessimistic? Maybe because Biden’s tax plans aren’t popular with voters. Contrary to what the White House might tell you, …

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S-Corp has had 24 hours to digest the Section 199A bill introduced by Senator Wyden yesterday, and the more we look, the less we like it.  Here are some additional thoughts:

Not an Expansion

Wyden’s office says the bill would raise $147 billion over ten years.  That is a large tax hike in anybody’s book, but you wouldn’t know that reading the media coverage, where the bill has largely been framed as an “expansion” of Section 199A, not a roll-back. For example, here’s Law360:

Sen. Ron Wyden introduced a bill Tuesday that would let owners of service businesses, like law firms and …

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Last month, over 100 trade associations voiced their strong opposition to changes to the Section 199A pass-through deduction. Their message was clear: now, more than ever, businesses across the country are relying on Section 199A to stay afloat.

Despite this broad opposition, Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden today announced that he was pressing ahead with a bill to phase out the deduction for taxpayers with incomes over $400,000, while eliminating it altogether for those with incomes exceeding $500,000.

Section 199A offers business owners a 20-percent deduction on their qualified business income, but the benefit is phased out for “specified service” trade …

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Last week’s on, off, and on-again bipartisan deal was confusing, but it did make clear President Biden’s intention to advance a more expansive partisan package regardless of the bipartisan bill’s fate.

Work on that expanded package has already begun. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer kicked off the budget reconciliation process earlier in the month, and Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders is now in the process of putting together a spending framework, reportedly in the $6 trillion range, with $3 trillion in offsets.

With moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin, Jon Tester and others voicing concern over the size of …

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More than 100 trade associations today voiced their opposition to proposed legislation which would weaken the Section 199A pass-through deduction.

The provision is an essential part of the Tax Code, and helps individually- and family-owned Main Street businesses remain competitive in an era of economic consolidation and concentration. Section 199A has also proven critical in enabling those businesses which were hardest hit during the pandemic to survive.

As the letter released today makes clear, rolling back or otherwise limiting the deduction would have a severely detrimental effect on the 95 percent of American businesses organized as pass-throughs.

Below is the comprehensive …

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