On April 26, 2017, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn introduced the Trump Administration’s tax reform proposal (the “Trump Proposal”) in a briefing. The proposal appears to borrow heavily from the tax reform plan put out by Mr. Trump during his presidential campaign with the
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Tax Reform
The President’s Long-Forgotten Power To Raise Tariffs
By John K. Veroneau on
Posted in International Strategy, Tax Reform
President-elect Trump’s expressed interest in possibly raising tariffs on imported goods has prompted considerable effort in trying to understand the scope of Presidential authority to raise tariffs. While the Congress has primary authority to set tariffs and the U.S. has made extensive international commitments to not raise tariffs, President-elect Trump…
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Tax Reform in the Next Congress
By Covington Team on
Posted in Congressional Action, Tax Reform
It is clear that the next Congress and President-elect Trump very likely will to try to do corporate tax reform — particularly international tax reform. Among the reasons this is the case is that there is an emerging consensus among both parties from a policy perspective that improving the business…
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A New Miscellaneous Tariff-Cutting Process Takes Shape
By Shara Aranoff on
In a notice published in Friday’s Federal Register, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC or Commission) has issued interim rules implementing the new miscellaneous tariff bill process mandated by Congress in the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016. The rules create a new pathway for U.S. manufacturers to seek…
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IRS Steps into Fray on Political Activities
By Susan Leahy & Matthew Shapanka on
Posted in Compliance Issues, Tax Reform
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued two private letter rulings (PLRs) that may be interesting for tax-exempt organizations that engage in political activity.
In the first ruling, the IRS held that a company could not deduct payments made to charity under a PAC matching contribution program as an “ordinary…
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As We Were Saying, Tax Reform is Dead
By Covington Team on
Posted in Congressional Action, Tax Reform
Back in our January post, “Tax Reform is Dead! Long Live Tax Reform!” we predicted that the President’s approach to tax reform as outlined in his State of the Union speech was so fundamentally incompatible with the approach of congressional Republicans that comprehensive tax reform legislation was highly…
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Tax Reform is Dead! Long Live Tax Reform!
By Covington Team on
Posted in Congressional Action, Tax Reform
As we noted in our December 15, 2014 post “Tax Reform is Already on the Table,” “[g]iven the politics at play with a Republican controlled Congress and a Democratic administration, it is easy to expect tax reform will go nowhere.” Nonetheless, we noted the likelihood “that there will …
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Tax Reform Is Already on the Table
Posted on
Posted in Congressional Action, Tax Reform
The battle for future tax reform ignited even before the close of the 113th Congress.
In the waning hours of the congressional session on December 11, outgoing House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) unveiled H.R. 1, the sweeping corporate tax reform legislation that he and his staff…
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Inversion Transactions Addressed in Treasury Notice
By Michael Caballero on
On Monday, September 22nd, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published Notice 2014-52 (the “Notice”) announcing their intention to issue regulations that would address corporate inversion transactions. If issued in the form described in the Notice, the regulations would prevent certain narrow categories of …
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Congress Must Deal With the Highway Trust Fund
By Covington Team on
Posted in Congressional Action, Tax Reform
When Congress returns this week from the July 4th recess, it will once again find itself grappling with legislation to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, which is fast running out of money. Congress must act by the end of July to keep the Trust Fund solvent. If it doesn’t, the…
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