Pardon Our Dust
We recently launched this new site and are still in the process of updating some of our archived content. Some details of this article may be incomplete, links may be broken, and other elements may not display properly yet. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
NUMBER OF THE WEEK: $160,000. The value of one gift bag at the Oscars on Sunday night. According to theInternal Revenue Service, contents of the gift bags cannot be treated as gifts for federal income tax purposes because the merchandise is not given “solely out of affection,respect, or similar impulses for the recipients of the gift bags.” Celebs are thus expected to report the $160,000 amount on their federal returns astaxable income. Check out the list of goodieshere.
LEGISLATIVE LANDSCAPE
Hatch’s Working Groups Humming Along. The Senate Finance Committee’s five working groups tasked with drafting bipartisan recommendations for tax reform are expected to turn in their reports atthe end of May. A tentative schedule with three distinct phases of work is guiding the working groups towards the May deadline, although weunderstand that interpretations of what each phase entails vary among the groups.
Almost all of February and March are slated for “education,” which means members and staff are meeting with experts from the Joint Committee on Taxation,academia, and think tanks to ask questions and gather information. Some groups are also looking to outside stakeholders for input during this phase, whileothers don’t expect to engage with stakeholders until late March when the groups enter the “roundtable” phase of the process. The exact format of theseroundtables remains uncertain. What we do know is that each working group (business, individual, savings and investment, international, and communitydevelopment and infrastructure) is approaching the process differently and progressing at varying rates. We hear the international group, for example, ismoving quite rapidly.
What can we expect out of the final recommendations at the end of May? We understand that the groups are each largely driven by the respective co-chairsoverseeing them, but they all have one very clear directive from committee leadership: keep it bipartisan. If the groups stay true to this principle, wecan expect a very narrow set of recommendations, rather than sweeping reforms.
JCT Releases Report on Tax Policy and Economic Growth. In preparation for the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on “Tax Reform, Growth, and Efficiency” on Tuesday, the Joint Committee on Taxation has preparedareport detailing how tax policy can influence the four key drivers ofeconomic growth: labor supply, capital investment, technological progress, and human capital. According to the report, lowering taxes on wages and businessincome as well as reducing education costs can help boost labor supply, physical and human capital investment and productivity, which altogether would helpincrease economic output. The report also includes a set of historical data on productivity, labor and GDP growth.
White House Makes Case for Tax Reform, Examines Alternatives. In its 2015 Annual Economic Report of the President, the White House Council of Economic Advisers devotes a chapter on the necessity of and approaches tobusiness tax reform, presenting four alternatives to consider: (1) elimination of the corporate income tax; (2) cutting the top individual rate, parallelwith the corporate rate; (3) adoption of a territorial tax system; and (4) allowing expensing for new investment. The report notes that business taxreform, if done properly, can increase productivity and boost investment in the United States without exacerbating “other challenges” (i.e. adding to thedeficit in the medium- and long-term). “Business tax reform…should complement the rest of the growth agenda – including by funding investments ininfrastructure – as well as a broader agenda involving individual tax reform,” the report said. Read the full reporthere.
REGULATORY WORLD
IRS Releases First Round of Guidance on “Cadillac Tax.” The Internal Revenue Service on Feb. 23 formally initiated its rulemaking process for the Affordable Care Act’s 40 percent excise tax on high-cost healthplans, set to take effect in 2018.Notice 2015-16 addresses issues surrounding the definition of“applicable coverage” and how its cost should be calculated for purposes of determining whether the so-called “Cadillac tax” is triggered.
The notice clarifies that “applicable coverage” under Section 4980I includes flexible health spending accounts, Archer medical savings accounts, healthsavings accounts, governmental plans, coverage for on-site medical clinics, retiree coverage and multiemployer plans. But the notice also states that theagencies expect to exclude employer contributions to HSAs and Archer MSAs from applicable coverage, as well as employee after-tax contributions to HSAs and Archer MSAs.
The IRS and the Treasury Department plan to put out another notice before issuing proposed rules under Section 4980I. That notice will address additionalissues, including procedures for calculating and assessing the tax.
Anti-Inversion Regulations Expected in 2015. A Treasury official said anti-inversions regulations based on Notice 2014-52 could possibly be released before the end of the year. Brenda Zent, a taxationspecialist in Treasury’s Office of International Tax Counsel, stated that they “will definitely be issuing regulations” although there is no specificdeadline for its release. Although Notice 2014-52 didn’t consider any earnings stripping rules, Treasury is still looking at ways of addressing the issue.Of note, the insurance industry is seeking changes to the anti-inversion rules. In particular, four insurance industry groups have asked the exception forpassive assets of insurance companies be expanded to be in line with banks. The groups say the current rule is too restrictive and that the Notice hasalready reduced the number of non-abusive transactions.
Dividend Equivalent Regulations May Hinder Foreign Investment. As the dividend-equivalent regulations under section 871(m) are expected by mid-March, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Inc. (CBOE) submitted a letterarguing that the proposed regulations will have a negative effect on foreign investment. The CBOE believes that many broker-dealers will not elect todevelop systems to implement the dividend-equivalent rules and block foreign customers from trading options, or some subset of options, such as indexes orcertain long option positions. Moreover, foreign investors may be hesitant to trade options given the differing opinions on delta. The letter alsoaddressed other issues pertaining to the coverage provided by the rule and the qualified index exception.
Tax Information Exchange Raising Privacy Concerns. The European Union says their privacy regulators continue to look at the tax information exchanges between EU member states and others. In light of theForeign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the forthcoming information exchanges to be implemented as a result of the Organization for EconomicCooperation and Development (OECD) recommendations, the EU is examining whether there are enough safeguards in place to protect personal data. Similarconcerns about the confidentiality of information in country-by-country reporting were raised during the recent Tax Council Policy Institute conference.
LOOKING AHEAD
Tuesday, 2/24
Senate Finance Committee
The full committee holds a hearing on “Tax Reform, Growth, and Efficiency” in 215 Dirksen. For more information, clickhere.
House Rules Committee
The committee meets to formulate arule for H.R. 529 – a bill that would amend the tax code to expandand strengthen 529 college savings plans.
Brookings Institution
Brookings holds a discussion on “Tax Filing and the Affordable Care Act.” For more information, clickhere.
Wednesday, 2/25
House Budget Committee
The committee holds a “Member’s Day” in 210 Cannon, allowing members of the House to testify before the committee on their suggested policies andpriorities for the Fiscal Year 2016 budget, which is slated for release by the end of March. Get detailshere.
House Appropriations Committee
The Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee holds a hearing on oversight of the IRS in 2359.
Thursday, 2/26
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
The full committee holds ahearing on “IRS: Treasury Inspector General for TaxAdministration Update,” focusing on the progress made by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration in recovering former IRS Director LoisLerner’s emails.