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Legislative Update and Treasury’s Effective Rate Study

Legislative Outlook, Post-Boehner Announcement

Speaker Boehner’s announcement that he plans to retire at the end of October has implications for tax policy and next year’s spending levels.  Here’s our outlook for both.

International Tax Reform:  Lots of noise on the tax front.  The latest rumors on the Ryan-Schumer plan to pair highway funding with international tax reforms are that:

  1. The plan is complete and has been sent up to the Administration for their review and sign-off;
  2. The plan is not finished and is hung up over a disagreement regarding how much to spend on highways;
  3. The plan will be presented to the Ways & Means

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

S-Corp Comments on Innovation Box

The S Corporation Association submitted comments today to Ways and Means Committee Members Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), sponsors of the draft “Innovation Promotion Act of 2015.”

As you’ll recall, the two members released a “discussion draft” of their innovation box idea back in July and asked stakeholders to weigh in.  The box itself offers US firms a lower tax rate on some income derived from the use of patents, inventions, formulas, etc.  Our friends at the Tax Foundation identified three motivating factors in the introduction of the box:

2019-02-01T19:59:04+00:00September 10, 2015|

Innovative Pass Thrus and an Update on Valuations

Innovative Pass Thrus

Last month’s release of the “innovation box” proposal by Ways and Means Committee Members Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) started us thinking, “Exactly how much innovating do S corporations do?”

In our own membership we have lots of innovative companies with robust R&E operations, but is that a representative sample, or an outlier?  Moreover, when you think of today’s most innovative companies – the real so-called “disrupters” – almost all of them began small and grew largely based on the quality of their ideas.  Apple is the most notable example these days but certainly not

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2019-02-01T19:59:04+00:00August 21, 2015|

Recap of a Busy Week in Tax Policy

Patent/Innovation Box

Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) and Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) unveiled their proposed “innovation box” legislation aimed at keeping intellectual property registered in the United States. The bill would lower the rate on qualified income from patents and intellectual property to 10 percent, but only for firms with domestic R&E expenses. Similar laws already exist in Europe, and there are signals that this could become part of a Ways and Means international tax package later this year. Here’s Chairman Ryan on the proposal:

The proposal from Reps. Boustany and Neal can help us stem the tide and protect good American jobs. It

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2019-02-01T19:59:04+00:00July 31, 2015|

Highway Funding and Tax Extenders Update

Highway Debate Continues

Last week, we reported on the House’s adoption of a highway trust fund (HTF) extension through December. This extension is the first step of Chairman Paul Ryan’s plan to combine a longer term HTF extension with key international tax reforms.

Meanwhile, Senate leaders want to act now, not in December, on a longer-term extension.   Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) support a six-year highway deal which has offsets for the first three years, but does not include international tax reform.  The Senate voted 62-36 Thursday morning to begin debate on the measure.

So

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2019-02-01T19:59:05+00:00July 24, 2015|