Legislative Activity
Ways and Means Marks Up Six More Tax Bills, Expected to Continue Work on Extenders Through Summer
On May 29, the House Ways and Means Committee held a markup of six bills (four extenders and two new provisions) seeking to make the following tax provisions permanent: (1) conservation contributions; (2) IRA distributions; (3) food inventory; (4) charitable contributions; (5) investment income of private foundations; and (6) bonus depreciation. This is the second round of bills the Ways and Means Committee has marked up relating to tax extenders. Democrats were generally supportive of the substance of the bills, but expressed concern about making policies permanent without providing any offsets. While all the bills were favorably reported out of Committee, each vote was along straight party lines.
Following the markup, Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) stated that “[w]e are making progress on tax reform…[i]t may not be in a complete bill, but this is incremental progress.” The Committee’s work on extending or making permanent more than 50 expired tax provisions is expected to continue into the summer.
Regulatory Activity
Financial Institutions May Initially Use Existing Forms to Sort Entity Accounts Required by FATCA
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has indicated that financial institutions will be permitted to use existing forms to sort their entity accounts through 2014 and later update the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) identification status during the applicable due diligence period. This announcement follows Notice 2014-33, providing that the IRS will treat calendar years 2014 and 2015 as a transition period during which it will consider institutions’ good-faith efforts to comply with FATCA when enforcing and administering the its due diligence, reporting, and withholding provisions.
