Tax Policy - The S Corporation Association

Volcker Report Released. On a Friday. In August.

The headline says it all. The long-awaited Volcker Tax Reform Commission report was released last Friday and was immediately put on a shelf someplace in the basement of the Ways and Means Committee. According to the Commission members:

The Board was asked to consider various options for achieving these goals but was asked to exclude options that would raise taxes for families with incomes less than $250,000 a year. We interpreted this mandate not to mean that every option we considered must avoid a tax increase on such families, but rather that the options taken together should be revenue neutral …

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admin2019-02-04T15:47:04+00:00September 1, 2010|

Small Business & Extender Tax Bill Update 2.0

After reappearing briefly last week, the latest version of the tax extenders package (Baucus IV) has now disappeared. The plan was for the latest version to garner sufficient support and then be attached to the small business tax bill, but the small business bill was pulled, ending the chances of the extender package getting adopted before the August break.

That means all those tax provisions that expired at the end of last year, including the R&E tax credit and the state sales tax deduction, will have to wait until September at the earliest before getting another shot. That’s too bad, as …

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admin2019-02-04T15:47:04+00:00August 3, 2010|

Small Business & Extender Tax Bill Update

If you watched the Senate floor yesterday, you might be under the impression that nothing was happening. The Senate spent most of the day in a Quorum Call (Senate code for nothing happening), and when a member did take the floor, often it was to speak about something other than small business taxes.

Ah, but still waters run deep, don’t they. Behind the scenes, two efforts were taking place. First, Leaders Reid and McConnell were continuing their back-and-forth over whether Reid would allow any amendments to the underlying small business tax bill and, if he did, what those amendments would be. …

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admin2019-02-04T15:47:04+00:00July 29, 2010|

Small Business Bill — Slogging Through the Senate

Last night, the Senate voted 60-39 to close debate on a Landrieu amendment to restore the $30 billion lending facility to the small business bill. This amendment was made necessary because earlier in the week, the leadership had dropped the lending facility due to staunch opposition from key swing votes.

The Senate is now on an unrelated bill, but we expect it to resume debate on the small business bill sometime next week, which will likely push House consideration of the bill into September. What’s the prognosis? Here’s the S-CORP Crystal Ball:

Progress on the bill had been slowed by two …

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admin2019-02-06T17:20:58+00:00July 23, 2010|

Finance Reviews Economic Impact of Tax Hikes

It’s July 14^th, 2010. There are approximately 30 legislative days before the fall elections and less than six months before huge portions of the tax code expire, so it’s only appropriate that today, the Senate Finance Committee held the first substantive hearing on the implications of allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. Some key points:

Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) clearly takes a dim view of flow-through taxation for certain firms and appears dismissive of arguments that higher rates will hurt the business community and employment. Washington Wire readers are encouraged to watch the hearing and see for themselves, but it’s …

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admin2019-02-06T17:20:59+00:00July 14, 2010|