Stage Set for Tax Reform; AICPA Continues Dialogue with Lawmakers

After six years of debate and more than 80 Congressional hearings, the stage appears to be set for action on a tax reform bill.  President Trump has identified tax reform as one of his top three initiatives, and Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are translating into legislative language the tax reform blueprint they released last year. 

Tax Reform in the 115th Congress?, a blog by American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Tax Executive Committee Chair Annette Nellen, CPA, CGMA, Esq., examines the history of tax reform, what might be included in a 2017-2018 tax reform bill and the obstacles to tax reform.

For members, the AICPA has created a tax reform resource center, intended to serve as the premiere place for members to go for up-to-date information about Congressional action and AICPA’s advocacy efforts.  The resource center features video updates, as well links to news articles and webcasts. 

The AICPA has analyzed and highlighted the benefits of various tax reform proposals as well as issues impacting our members in face-to-face meetings with House and Senate lawmakers and their staff.  The latest efforts by the AICPA have focused on issues in the blueprint, A Better Way: Our Vision for a Confident America, that are of interest to professional service businesses.  Among those issues are the tax rate for “active business income,”  how to distinguish compensation income, the limitation of the deduction for interest expense, how to simplify retirement savings rules, how to improve IRS service for taxpayers and tax practitioners and how to reduce compliance burdens.  One option to reduce the compliance burden would be to permit certain flow-through entities to choose fiscal year ends consistent with their normal operating cycle year-ends, which would allow advisers to spread out their workloads during the year.