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Brady Elected Chairman of Ways and Means

On Wednesday, the Republican Steering Committee tapped Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) to succeed Speaker Ryan as the committee’s chairman. Both he and his challenger, Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH), are strong allies of S corporations and pass-through businesses, so we excited to see him take on the gavel.

What does Brady’s ascension mean for tax policy?  The Wall Street Journal has an interview with the new Chairman this morning, where Brady makes clear he wants to move a robust tax extender package (yea!) this fall then spend next year pushing the “step one, step two” plan for tax reform outlined by

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2019-02-01T19:59:03+00:00November 6, 2015|

What’s On Deck for the Rest of 2015

Speaker Boehner had a three step plan at the beginning of October: 1) Resign at the end of the month; 2) Clear the legislative decks of controversial and difficult items; 3) Turn the gavel over to a new Speaker to begin their tenure with a clean slate.

Looking back, he pretty much pulled it off.  Sure, the Speakership went to Paul Ryan, not Kevin McCarthy, and not all the tough legislative items cleared Congress, but the simple fact is that Speaker Ryan begins his term with a much more manageable set of issues than the laundry list of must pass items

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2019-02-01T19:59:04+00:00November 2, 2015|

Legislative Update

It’s been a busy week.  First, Ways & Means Chair Paul Ryan yielded to a tremendous amount of peer pressure and agreed to run for Speaker.  The Republican Conference vote to replace departing Speaker John Boehner is set for October 28th and appears to be all but decided.

And now Boehner made good on his promise to clear off a bunch of “must pass” items before he left, announcing last night a deal with the White House to 1) raise the debt limit through March of 2017, 2) increase the spending caps on defense and non-defense discretionary for 2016 and

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2019-02-01T19:59:04+00:00October 27, 2015|

S-CORP News Clips

Small Business Confidence Survey

You’ll remember back in June we profiled three small business surveys from NFIB, Wells Fargo/Gallup, and Thumbtack. Together, these surveys, with different sample populations and varying methods, provide the most complete picture of the small business landscape today. When we examined their findings during the summer, we saw words like “lukewarm”, “uninspiring”, and “more of the same” to describe the private business environment.

For the third quarter of 2015, it’s “more of the same” again.  With minor variations, all three surveys show that business owners are no more confident today than they were during the summer. In

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2019-02-01T19:59:04+00:00October 19, 2015|

GOP Leadership Fight Will Continue, Implications for Tax Reform

Well that didn’t go as planned.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s surprising withdrawal from the Speaker’s race Thursday put an end to John Boehner’s carefully orchestrated plan to pass a raft of difficult bills this month, turn over the Speakers’ gavel to McCarthy on the 29th, and ride off into the sunset.

We still expect Boehner to successfully negotiate deals on spending, debt limit and highways, but where does all the turmoil leave tax policy?  Our friends at Tax Notes asked around and got this response:

Tax observers said McCarthy’s withdrawal makes it more difficult to achieve any kind of complicated tax legislation

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2019-02-01T19:59:04+00:00October 9, 2015|