Senate GOP Passes Amendment to Repeal State and Local Tax Deduction
Posted on Oct 20, 2017 in News, State and Local Tax
With a 52-47 vote, Senate Republicans passed an amendment to the budget resolution to repeal the state and local tax deduction, which allows federal filers to deduct taxes paid for their real estate, personal property, state income, and sales taxes. The measure is expected to raise $1.3 trillion over the next ten years. Opponents of the move are critical of the fact that only...
Senate Approves Budget, Easing Path Toward Tax Reform Legislation
Posted on Oct 19, 2017 in News, Tax Accounting
The Senate approved a budget for 2018 with language permitting a simple majority vote on tax legislation through reconciliation. The budget language allows tax legislation to add up to $1.5 trillion dollars to the deficit over a decade, which the budget blueprint balances by assuming greater economic growth, cuts in spending and an accounting method that does not include Social...
McCain Announces Support for Budget Resolution
Posted on Oct 18, 2017 in News
Sen. John McCain buoyed GOP tax reform hopes by announcing his support for the Senate budget resolution, set for a vote later this week. Debate on the resolution began midday Tuesday following a 50-47 vote, split along party lines, to move the process forward. While Sen. John Thune expressed optimism toward passing the resolution, some Senate Republicans remain uncommitted, including...
Trump Tempers Tax Reform Timing Expectations
Posted on Oct 17, 2017 in News, State and Local Tax
President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, at an October 16th White House news conference, acknowledged that the tax code rewrite may not occur by year’s end, though the goal remains to accomplish reform in 2017. With the release of a detailed tax plan still pending, Republicans are faced with disputes regarding how to tax corporations, the fate of the estate tax, and...
Senate Republicans to Vote on Fiscal Year 2018 Budget
Posted on Oct 16, 2017 in News
Senate Republicans anticipate voting on the fiscal year 2018 budget this week, allowing their tax plan to add up to $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years. The resolution will also contain provisions allowing the GOP to pass the tax reform bill, promised to be brought to the floor by year’s end, by a simple majority and avoid a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. While...
Senate Finance Committee Holds Hearing on International Tax Reform
Posted on Oct 4, 2017 in International Tax, News
Led by Chairman Hatch, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on international tax reform, following the release of the Republican tax reform framework. The hearing and witnesses focused on the competitive disparity between foreign multinationals and domestic multinationals. The witnesses differed on whether a switch to a territorial system or stronger earning stripping provisions...
Administration Official States that Repatriation Tax Will Be in the 10% Range
Posted on Oct 3, 2017 in News
National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn stated on Sunday that the Trump administration has proposed taxing profits accumulated offshore in the “10 percent range.” The tax reform framework released on September 27 stated that there would be two rates for the repatriation tax, with cash taxed at a higher rate than illiquid assets, but did not specify an amount. Cohn did not indicate...
GOP Releases Tax Reform Framework
Posted on Sep 27, 2017 in News
The White House and Congressional Republicans have released the Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code. The goals for the Framework, which is described as a template for the tax-writing committees, include providing tax relief for the middle class; simplifying the tax filing process; providing tax relief for businesses (with an emphasis on small businesses); ending incentives...
Tax Reform Blueprint Expected to Include 25% Tax Rate for Pass-Through Entities
Posted on Sep 26, 2017 in News, Pass-through Taxation
The GOP tax reform framework is expected to include a new 25% tax rate for “pass-through” businesses, so named because profits and losses transfer directly to the entity’s owners. Income earned through pass-through businesses is currently taxed at individual income rates as high as 39.6%. President Trump is scheduled to announce his tax reform plan, which will also...
Aspects for GOP’s Tax Overhaul Plan Leak
Posted on Sep 25, 2017 in News
The Republican tax reform blueprint, due to be released this week, will propose a corporate tax rate of 20 percent, according to three insiders with knowledge of the plan, speaking on the condition of anonymity. In addition, the plan will call for full-expensing, allowing companies to immediately and fully deduct capital expenses. However, the full expensing benefit will be...
The GOP Readies Tax Reform Pitch
Posted on Sep 22, 2017 in News
President Trump, learning from the administration’s failure to engage conservative groups during its attempt to repeal Obamacare, will host leaders from several conservative grass roots organizations on Monday, September 25, to rally political allies around his tax reform plan. On Wednesday, the House Republican Conference will conduct a half-day retreat focused on effectively...
Senators Corker and Toomey Reach Tentative Budget Resolution Deal
Posted on Sep 20, 2017 in News
Bob Corker and Pat Toomey, GOP members of the Senate Budget Committee, have reached a tentative agreement on a budget resolution that would allow for tax cuts that would significantly increase the deficit as determined using static scoring. While the Senators did not specify the size of the potential deficit increase, Senator Ron Johnson indicated that he would support an amount of at...
Hatch Touts Corporate Integration at Tax Reform Hearing
Posted on Sep 20, 2017 in News
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, during his opening statement at the committee’s Hearing on Business Tax Reform on September 19, stated that he continues to support his corporate integration proposal, which would allow U.S. businesses to deduct shareholder dividend payments from their taxable income in order to resolve the perceived double taxation, at the corporate and...
Mnuchin Discusses Tax Reform
Posted on Sep 15, 2017 in News
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, during an interview on the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” indicated that tax reform would be revenue neutral under the Administration’s growth assumptions. In discussing specifics of the yet-to-be released tax reform plan, he stated that the estate tax would be eliminated, that there would be a one-time deemed...
Congressional Republicans Frustrated by Lack of Tax Reform Detail
Posted on Sep 14, 2017 in News
With the vote for tax reform legislation looming, Congressional members of the GOP, including Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, have expressed concern over the lack of clarity as to what the tax reform proposal is. Speaking anonymously, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee suggested that the lack of detail was either to prevent media leaks or because there is simply not...