A high-stakes summer is underway in America, where President Donald Trump and the nation’s governors are pushing forward with plans for reopening the nation’s economy even as many nervously eye health indicators that suggest the coronavirus may not be satisfactorily contained. In a vivid illustration of this tension, the Republican National Committee announced Thursday that … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Lawmakers Look at Specific Tax Policy Priorities with an Eye Toward Tax Reform in 2017 With the House last week having passed various targeted pieces of tax legislation, it is clear that much of the rest of this Congress will be devoted to more narrow asks, though continued efforts in anticipation of tax … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Congressional Republicans Place DOL’s Fiduciary Rule in Crosshairs Last week, on April 19, just one day after Senate Republicans introduced a resolution to disapprove and nullify the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Fiduciary Rule, House Republicans introduced a companion resolution also targeting the rulemaking. Two days later, on April 21, the House Education and … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate to Consider Business Tax Reform Proposals Following multiple hearings on tax reform thus far this year in the House Ways and Means Committee, this week the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on business tax reform. During the hearing, the difference between Republican and Democrat approaches to taxing corporate income, including … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Lawmakers Still Divided on Labor’s Fiduciary Rule With the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Fiduciary Rule now with the Office of Management and Budget and being prepared for release in final form later this spring, last week Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) emphasized his opposition to the proposal, noting that he is … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House Committees Mark-Up Fiduciary Rule Legislation as Senators Introduce Companion Bills With the Department of Labor (DOL) having recently submitted its Fiduciary Rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – officially beginning the countdown before DOL’s proposal is released in final form – last week, the House Ways and Means and … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Tax-Writers to Scrutinize Obama’s Budget With President Obama set to release his FY 2017 Budget Proposal on the morning of Tuesday, February 9, House and Senate tax-writers this week have scheduled numerous hearings to review the tax and revenue portions of the Budget. The proposals – at least some of which are sure … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Deadline for Senate Finance Committee Working Groups’ Proposals Nears, Talk of International Tax Reform Continues After being delayed for a second time, the Senate Finance Committee Tax Reform Working Groups are expected to submit their reports to the full Committee on Tuesday, July 7. Presently, it is unclear the extent to which (if … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity House to Vote on Repealing Medical Device Tax House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced last week that the House plans to take up legislation to eliminate the excise tax on medical devices during the week of June 15. The Protect Medical Innovation Act (H.R. 160), which was introduced by Representative Erik Paulsen … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Republicans Focus on Small Businesses, Democrats Target Tax “Loopholes” Following a busy week for tax-writers – which included several hearings on “Tax Day” to address tax reform and the potential impact on small businesses – there is growing discussion about the possibility of pursuing business-only tax reform. To that end, Senate Finance Committee … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity President Obama to Unveil FY 2016 Budget Later today, President Obama is set to unveil his FY 2016 Budget (Budget). We anticipate that the Budget will include various proposals previewed in President Obama’s State of the Union Address. Squire Patton Boggs will release a comprehensive Budget analysis in the days following. Senate Finance … Continue Reading
Legislative Activity Senate Finance Committee Outlines Path Forward on Tax Reform On June 5, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) announced the Committee’s next steps with regard to comprehensive tax reform. As part of its efforts, the Committee will hold three hearings during June and July focused on: … Continue Reading