Living the Dream “How was your weekend?” Thank you for asking. Awful.[i] “Why?” you ask. (Humor me. Pretend you’re interested.) I’ll tell you. One word, with 535 syllables: Congress.[ii] When the reconciliation budget resolutions were passed by the Senate and then the House,[iii] the committees to which reconciliation instructions were given were also directed “to …
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Summertime in Washington On August 11, the Senate passed the $3.5 trillion budget resolution for the 2021-2022 fiscal year – S. Con. Res. 14, as amended – by a vote of 50 to 49, strictly along party lines, including Democratic Senators Manchin and Sinema who have repeatedly questioned the wisdom of such an expensive measure. …
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Report Card A couple of weeks ago, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”) released a report that presented the results of its review to determine whether the IRS’s “policies, procedures and, practices” adequately ensured that its examiners were considering the compensation paid by closely held S corporations to those shareholders who rendered service …
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Welcome to the Governor’s office, Ms. Hochul. Unfortunately, congratulations are hardly in order; indeed, a wish for good luck seems much more appropriate. I suppose you realize that the last round of tax legislation, enacted in April by the Democratic-controlled Assembly and Senate – veto-proof super majorities in both Chambers – resulted in a tax …
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The Calm Before? I’m confused.[i] For better or worse, I’m pretty sure that I am not alone. Last week, in a letter addressed to the American people, forty-six of the fifty Republicans in the U.S. Senate indicated they would not vote in favor of increasing the federal debt ceiling to accommodate the additional spending that …
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Compare and Contrast Have you spoken to anybody about the infrastructure bill on which the Senate is about to vote? I know I haven’t, except to explain that Speaker Pelosi has stated the House will not consider the bill unless and until the Senate also adopts a budget resolution for the President’s tax and spending …
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The Dog Days[i] I’ve never much cared for the month of August. In New York, at least for me, the eighth month of the year – named by the Roman Emperor, Augustus, to honor himself[ii] – evokes memories of very warm, very humid days, and anxious thoughts about the upcoming school year.[iii] Although I no …
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Capital Loss If the amount realized by a taxpayer upon the sale of a partnership interest to a third party is insufficient to restore to the taxpayer their adjusted basis for the interest – i.e., their unrecovered investment in the partnership – a loss is sustained equal to the difference between such adjusted basis and …
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Movement Toward Tax Increases You may have read last week that Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee announced they had reached a deal on a budget resolution that will enable them to bypass Senate Republicans on the way to enacting most of the “social infrastructure” programs called for under the President’s American Families Plan.[i] Significantly, …
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Head-Scratchers The Code is chock-full of provisions that will challenge the intellectual capacity, not to mention the patience, of most tax professionals. The complexity of these rules does not arise out of some sadistic intent on the part of Congress, the Treasury, or the IRS to torment taxpayers and their advisers;[i] rather, it is often …
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