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Talking Taxes in a Truck Episode 18: Beware the “Slimmed Down Package”

On our latest episode we’re joined by Miller & Chevalier Tax Department Chair, veteran tax policy expert, and longtime S-Corp ally Marc Gerson. Marc breaks down recent comments from Senator Joe Manchin that outlined a reconciliation bill he might support, the prospects for tax legislation in the coming months, and why even a “slimmed down” legislative package presents considerable risk for Main Street businesses. Marc also talks tax extenders, the fate of the Section 163(j) interest deduction cap, and whether the Washington Nationals will break .500 this year.

The Top 10 Questions post from Miller & Chevalier that Brian references

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2022-03-15T14:50:03+00:00March 15, 2022|

Main Street Shrinks as Employment Expands

In a statement released last week, the White House boasted that February’s employment numbers – which reported 678,000 new jobs – were the result of “the new economic approach [President Biden] talked about in the State of the Union: grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”

In taking a closer look at which companies did the hiring, however, a very different narrative emerges. Instead, what we see is the ongoing consolidation of economic power away from Main Street and into the hands of the largest publicly-traded companies.

The official Bureau of Labor Statistics report only shows

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2022-03-09T20:08:02+00:00March 9, 2022|

Parsing Manchin (Again)

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) once again gave life to the moribund Build Back Better discussions Wednesday by outlining a new, slimmed-down version of the bill that he could support.  According to Politico:

Manchin said that if Democrats want to cut a deal on a party-line bill using the budget process to circumvent a Republican filibuster, they need to start with prescription drug savings and tax reform. He envisions whatever revenue they can wring out of that as split evenly between reducing the federal deficit and inflation, on the one hand, and enacting new climate and social programs, on the other

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2022-03-04T15:52:57+00:00March 4, 2022|

The State of the Union and Taxes – What to Expect

Leading up to tonight’s State of the Union address, advocates of the stalled Build Back Better Act appear to be spinning their wheels again. Instead of listening to their detractors and making the necessary changes, they rely instead on the idea that if only they improve their messaging a little bit, the whole plan could still come together.

Last week, they blamed the press for describing the bill, accurately, as a package of social spending provisions.  According to POLITICO:

As the Biden administration looks over the cadaver that is their Build Back Better agenda, wondering what components, if any, it can

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2022-03-01T22:41:50+00:00March 1, 2022|

Beware of Pollsters on Taxes

According to POLITICO and numerous other news outlets, top White House advisors remain convinced that pushing policies to make wealthy individuals and corporations start “paying their fair share” is a winning strategy in its own right, and not just a means of paying for other programs:

With that in mind, the Democratic pollsters John Anzalone and Matt Hogan are urging the party’s candidates to focus on forcing the rich and corporations to pay more in taxes.

Just a few problems with that prescription.  First, successful Americans already pay their fair share.  According to the IRS, the top 50 percent of

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2022-02-15T23:25:22+00:00February 15, 2022|