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Baucus Substitute, Part II

After falling 15 votes shy of the 60 needed to close debate and move forward on the “extender plus” package, Finance Chairman Max Baucus offered up a second substitute last evening and Senator Reid immediately filed a cloture motion to end debate. That motion requires 60 votes and the vote would take place on Friday.

The new Baucus substitute is “slimmer” than the previous effort and apparently was designed to mirror the deficit impact of the House-passed bill. As such, its goal is not only to attract 60 votes in the Senate, but also to pass the House as well. As

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2019-02-06T17:20:59+00:00June 17, 2010|

Latest on Payroll Tax Hike and Extenders

Earlier today, the Senate voted earlier on its version of the “extenders plus” bill passed by the House a few weeks back. The vote, on a motion to waive a Budget Act point of order, failed miserably (45-52), indicating the Senate Leadership has a long way to go before they gather the sixty votes necessary to move forward.

With this morning’s vote behind us, the process moving forward is becoming clearer–Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) is expected to introduce a new substitute today. According to BNA:

Baucus is expected to draw up a new substitute amendment that will be a slimmed-down

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2019-02-06T17:20:59+00:00June 16, 2010|

Senators Snowe and Enzi Take On Small Business Tax Hike

The payroll tax hike in the House-passed extenders bill moves to the front burner in the Senate this week.

Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced an amendment late last week to strike the provision from the bill. As a potential swing vote on the overall package, Snowe’s opposition in particular is sure to catch Leadership’s eye.

“At a time when Congress continues to dither on enacting a small business jobs bill, Section 413 is a poison pill in this tax bill, robbing American small businesses of the capital they need to create new, good-paying jobs,” Senator Snowe said in

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2019-02-06T17:20:59+00:00June 14, 2010|

Payroll Tax Hike Taken Up in the Senate

The Senate began debate on the bloated tax extender package today. The House passed its version 215-204 shortly before leaving for the Memorial Day recess on May 28th.

That vote was supposed to take place earlier in May, leaving time for the Senate to take action, but opposition to the tax hikes and higher deficits called for in the bill delayed consideration until the Leadership was able to cobble together the votes. As a result, the Senate had already left town and is just now taking up the bill today.

Regarding the schedule, Senator Reid faces a tight window to get the

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2019-02-06T17:20:59+00:00June 8, 2010|

S-CORP Opposes Extender Pay-For

Your S-CORP team has been busy hitting the Hill in opposition to this payroll tax provision in recent days. Late last week, the House Ways and Means Committee released its package of tax extenders, partially offset by an expansion of the S corporation payroll tax to firms in service industries.

While the S corporation community knew the payroll tax hike was under consideration, this was the first time we had seen an actual proposal and it took us a couple days to get a read on who would be affected.

The provision is much broader than advertised. It begins by

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2019-02-06T17:20:59+00:00May 26, 2010|