The Washington Wire Archive - The S Corporation Association

Budget Process and Reconciliation

Both the House and the Senate completed their respective budget resolutions last week. The plan now is for the two bodies to get together to resolve any differences and produce a single budget in the form of a conference report. We expect most of those discussions to take place over the next couple of weeks.

One of the key questions for budget conferees is whether or not they will include reconciliation instructions for health care reform and climate change. As S-CORP readers know, the virtue of reconciliation is that it lowers the bar to pass something in the Senate from a …

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admin2019-02-06T17:22:35+00:00April 8, 2009|

Congressional Budget Takes Form

Lots of budget related news in recent days with implications for small business taxpayers. First, the Congressional Budget Office weighed in last week with its analysis of the Obama budget outline and estimated that the Administration’s proposals, if enacted intact, would double the overall deficit over the next ten years.mThe numbers are truly staggering and should scare any reasonable person who plans to be a taxpayer over the next several decades. Starting with a deficit of around $1.8 trillion this year — …

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admin2019-02-06T17:22:35+00:00March 25, 2009|

Small Business and Tax Rates — The Debate Continues

The advocates over at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) issued a new study last week demonstrating, once again, how few “real” small businesses would be adversely affected by raising the top two income tax rates back to their old 39.6 and 36 percent levels. As their study states:

“Some critics of the President’s budget charge that his proposals to roll back tax breaks for taxpayers with incomes over $250,000 would harm small businesses. In fact, only 8.9 percent of people with any …

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admin2019-02-06T17:22:35+00:00March 4, 2009|

Obama’s Tax Plans Take Shape

President Obama released a 140-page outline of his budget today that reflects his revenue and spending priorities for the next couple of years.

Chief among these is a major change in federal health care policies. As made clear in his speech to Congress the other day, health care reform is first among the several big reforms on the table and his budget sets aside $634 billion of the estimated $1 trillion he plans to spend on the plan.

To raise the $634 billion, Obama calls for: 1) limiting itemized deductions for …

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admin2019-02-06T17:22:35+00:00February 26, 2009|

Estate Tax Fix Poses Threat for Family Businesses

As we have noted, the stars appear to have aligned for a big estate tax compromise later this year, most likely to be focused on freezing the 2009 rules for at least a year. This means the current top tax rate of 45 percent and $3.5 million exclusion will stay the same for a while. But there’s lots of mischief that can take place under those broad levels.

As tax reformers will tell you, the base is just as important in determining your tax burden as the rates.

With that in mind, several S-Corp allies have pointed out legislation introduced by Congressman …

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admin2019-02-06T17:22:35+00:00February 20, 2009|