Home/The Washington Wire Archive

S Corp Modernization Introduced!

Just in time for our annual Board meeting, S-Corp Champions Dave Reichert (R-WA) and Ron Kind (D-WI) introduced legislation to improve the rules governing S corporations!  Entitled the S Corporation Modernization Act of 2015 (HR 2788), the legislation would help ensure that the more than 4.6 million S corporations are able to compete and thrive today’s economy.

Back in 2013, a coalition of key business organizations supported similar legislation, noting that many of the rules that govern the day-to-day management of S corporations date back more than half a century.   These outdated rules hurt the ability of existing S corporations to

(Read More)

2019-02-01T19:59:05+00:00June 17, 2015|

S Corp News Clips

Family Business Valuation under Attack?

In a development that could harm valuations of S corporations and other family-owned businesses, the Treasury Department appears poised to issue guidance limiting discounts under section 2704. Such action has been hinted at for a while, but people began to pay real attention following comments from Catherine Hughes, head of Estate and Gift Tax Attorney-Advisor at Treasury, before the ABA’s Estate Planning breakfast back in April.

It’s not exactly clear what the Treasury has in mind, but Hughes referred the ABA audience to proposals the Administration included in their annual budget offerings prior to 2014.  We

(Read More)

2019-02-01T19:59:05+00:00June 12, 2015|

Courts Overvalue S Corps

For over 15 years, the IRS has discriminated against S Corporations when it comes to estate taxes and other matters where business valuation plays a role and, for 15 years, S Corp has been fighting them on it.

Our S-Corp advisor Nancy Fannon has written extensively on the subject. In 2007, we told you about her book, The Comprehensive Guide to S Corporation Valuation, which did a great job of laying out the entire issue.

Now, Nancy has followed up with Taxes and Value: The Ongoing Research and Analysis Relating to the S Corporation Valuation Puzzle. You can purchase the book

(Read More)

2019-02-01T19:59:05+00:00May 14, 2015|

Big Week for S-Corp

It’s been a busy and productive week for team S-Corp!  First, we had two S-Corp representatives testifying before congressional committees on Wednesday. Second, with the Finance Committee working group comments due on April 15th, we made three separate submissions to the Business, Individual, and International working groups. And finally, as part of the working group submissions, we released the 2015 version of our “Pass Through” tax reform principles letter with 118 trade groups signing on!

Here’s a quick summary of each of these efforts.

S-Corp Testifies

In an S-Corp first, we had two witnesses testifying at congressional hearings on Tax Day.

Board

(Read More)

2019-02-01T20:00:10+00:00April 20, 2015|

Kleinbard on Tax Reform

Edward Kleinbard, the former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, has a piece in Bloomberg on the prospects of corporate tax reform that makes some interesting points worth considering.

To start, he argues that Congress should pass corporate-only tax reform and pass through businesses can just convert to C corporation status and access the new lower rates.  He’s made this case previously, and we address it here,

But why is corporate-only reform necessary?  Well, it’s just impossible to reduce pass through rates these days:

Reducing top individual tax rates is a nonstarter. The Barack Obama administration would be adamantly opposed, and

(Read More)

2019-02-01T20:00:10+00:00March 6, 2015|