Tax Talk: Volume 10, Issue 3

Tax Reform (or whatever you want to call it) is in full swing as this edition of Tax Talk goes to press.  The House has passed H.R. 1 and the Senate Finance Committee has approved its own version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”).  A vote in the Senate is scheduled for the week after Thanksgiving, and, if we get that far, a House-Senate conference on the legislation will follow.  Comparing the House and Senate bills, there are a number of areas of agreement, with some of the highlights being:

• Both bills include a participation exemption for dividends paid to a U.S. corporation from a 10% or more owned foreign corporation;
• Both bills include deemed repatriation provisions for offshore corporate earnings accumulated through the end of 2017;
• Both bills would significantly limit (or eliminate) an individual’s deduction for state and local income and property taxes;
• Both bills would limit the deduction for home mortgage interest (although the Senate Finance Committee bill’s limit is close to current law);
• Both bills would give business income earned through a partnership favorable treatment either through a reduced rate (25% in HR 1) or through a partnership-level deduction; and
• Both bills would limit corporate interest expense to 30% of “adjusted taxable income.”

There is obviously a lot more in these bills, and much could change even over the next few weeks.  To keep tabs on the legislative activity, we have set up a free website (http://www.mofotaxreform.com/) where you can find all the publicly available information on tax reform that’s not copyrighted!

Also, in this Tax Talk we cover a District Court ruling invalidating anti-inversion regulations due to lack of notice and comment, the extension of the phase in for certain aspects of the section 871 regulations, new proposed regulations concerning instruments in registered form, and more.

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