Home/The Washington Wire

Latest on Section 68

With Congress home for the elections, the opportunity for tax policy wins shifts to Treasury and the regulatory process. Here’s some good news on that front — Treasury’s Priority Guidance Plan unveiled this week highlights their plan to clarify the Section 68 haircut and its application to deductions particular to trusts and estates.

To recap, the new Section 68 contains a potential tax trap for trusts and estates that own S corporation shares and other assets. Our earlier piece included more detail on how we got here, but the bottom line is simple: if Section 68 applies to the …

(Read More)

2026-10-01T20:53:33+00:00October 1, 2026|

CRS Exposes the Parity Gap

A new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) puts fresh numbers behind a point we’ve made for a decade: Section 199A is essential to keeping pass-through businesses competitive with their C corporation counterparts.

The report examines the effects of increasing the Section 199A deduction from its current 20 percent to 25 percent, which was floated as part of last year’s tax bill debate. CRS modeled that proposal to see how it would affect marginal effective tax rates on new business investment. Their chart shows the results:

As noted, Marginal …

(Read More)

2026-09-29T16:39:30+00:00September 29, 2026|

S-Corp in the Examiner

S-Corp President Brian Reardon is out with an op-ed in the Washington Examiner taking a closer look at The Everywhere Millionaire, the new book highlighting America’s surprisingly large population of successful, self-made business owners. As he writes:

At its core, the book includes dozens of supportive profiles of people who built up great family businesses, often in the most unlikely of places and industries. Who knew you could start a billion-dollar business with a hot dog cart in a parking lot? The founder of the Chicago restaurant chain Portillo’s did that. Other fun profiles include Buc-ees, Outback Steakhouse, and Bass Pro Shops.

The founders …

(Read More)

2026-09-28T17:47:25+00:00September 28, 2026|

Americans Trust Main Street

A new Gallup survey has prompted another round of debate over capitalism versus socialism. The headline number is striking: 43 percent of Americans now view socialism positively, the highest share recorded.

Yet socialism still trails capitalism, which 55 percent view positively, and free enterprise, at 77 percent. Small business leads the field by a wide margin, earning a positive rating from 95 percent of Americans. Big business is the outlier at 35 percent.

Chamber of Commerce President Suzanne Clark was on Squawk Box earlier this week as part of their Free Enterprise Tour.

…

(Read More)

2026-09-25T17:27:31+00:00September 25, 2026|

Pass-Throughs & Inequality

Apollo’s “Daily Spark” had a nice blurb last week featuring the “Everywhere Millionaire.” Here’s what they said:

The income that lifted America’s top 1% did not come mainly from tech or Wall Street, according to The Everywhere Millionaire. More than half of the rise in the top 1% income share since 1985, 5.8 of 10.5 percentage points, flowed through pass-through businesses, see chart below.

The authors, Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick, counted roughly 3 million wealthy private business owners, with average net worth near $25 million, running law firms, car dealerships, medical practices, commercial contractors and regional restaurant chains, the kind …

(Read More)

2026-09-22T20:02:27+00:00September 22, 2026|