Don't Mess With Taxes

The outcome of November’s elections could determine the fate of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill. Key provisions of that Republican tax code overhaul are set to expire Dec. 31, 2025.

Potentially expiring tax laws include the individual income tax rates, estate taxes, the cap on deducting state and local taxes (SALT), the section 199A deduction for passthrough income, and bonus depreciation.

In anticipation of the impeding end of some popular tax provisions (and what that might mean to voters this year), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) and Tax Subcommittee Chairman Mike (R-Pennsylvania) set up teams to “identify legislative solutions” to the expiring provisions.

Now, the 10 tax teams are asking for public input.

10 areas of tax interest: Below are the  areas of tax policy focus and review that the GOP Ways and Means’ members will examine.

• American Manufacturing 
• Working Families
• American Workforce 
• Main Street 
• New Economy 
• Rural America 
• Community Development 
• Supply Chains 
• U.S. Innovation 
• Global Competitiveness 

The Ways and Means announcement of the teams has details on which GOP members are assigned to the above 10 areas.

Send in your comments: The House tax-writing committee has created a special email address to accept input from the public. These comments, say GOP leaders, will be used in their formulation of future tax measures.

Comments can be sent to [email protected] through Tuesday, October 15, 2024. Yes, that also is this year’s tax return filing extension due date.

The Ways and Means Committee also established the following guidelines for emailing comments to the tax teams:

• Any person(s) or organization(s) wishing to submit comments to the email address.
• In the subject line or body of the e-mail, please indicate: “Tax Teams Comment on [name of relevant Tax Team(s)].”
• Attach any written submission as a Word document.
• Include a contact name, address, phone number, and e-mail address in the attachment of body of the email.

The tax committee emphasizes that last point. “E-mails that are missing contact information or that do not list relevant Tax Teams will not be accepted,” notes the comment statement.

If you have questions or need technical assistance, you can call (202) 225-3625.

Comment considerations: The Washington, D.C.-bases law firm Miller & Chevalier also has some suggestions on presenting your comments to the tax team.

Since the tax teams share overlapping policy areas, you may want to file comments with multiple teams. For example, notes the Miller & Chevalier Tax Alert, it makes sense that comments on the research and development (R&D) credit would be relevant to the American Manufacturing, U.S. Innovation, and Global Competitive Tax Teams.

With the GOP in control of the House, the Party’s leaders also are in charge of the Ways and Means Committee. But, the law firm points out, that submissions to the tax teams don’t need be partisan bent.

“In fact, to the extent they are comfortable, taxpayers may want to consider submitting comments of a more general nature to all the tax-writing committee staffs. After all, the House and Senate are narrowly divided and control of either chamber could change in 2025,” says the alert.

The law firm also suggests that individual companies let business-oriented trade associations take the lead in making the case for broadly applicable provisions, such as for  R&D amortization or bonus depreciation.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Another GOP attempt to repeal the federal estate tax
• SCOTUS tax law decision could wreck U.S. tax code…or not 
• Wider tax brackets in 2024 will lower what some taxpayers owe Uncle Sam

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