March 12, 2021
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Tax News & Views Capitol Hill briefing. March 12, 2021 In this issue: Biden signs American Rescue Plan into law ............................................................................................................ 1 Taxwriters preview ‘Build Back Better’ debate at Ways and Means subcommittee hearing ................................. 3 Neal, Pascrell push for extended 2021 tax filing season ......................................................................................... 5 Biden to nominate Batchelder, Davidson for Treasury posts ................................................................................. 7 Deloitte Tax looks at COVID-related changes affecting compensation and benefits, Qualified Opportunity Funds ............................................................................................................................. 8 Biden signs American Rescue Plan into law President Biden on March 11 signed the American Rescue Plan into law, capping an eight-week sprint by congressional Democrats and the White House to enact the sweeping $1.9 trillion tax-and-spending package aimed at addressing the continuing economic and health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. URL: https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-117HR1319EAS.pdf Tax News & Views Page 1 of 10 Copyright © 2021 Deloitte Development LLC March 12, 2021 All rights reserved. The new law, among other things, extends and enhances a number of current-law tax incentives for businesses, provides another round of direct economic impact payments for certain individuals, temporarily enhances several tax credits aimed at low- and middle-income workers and families, and provides funding relief for cash-strapped multiemployer and single-employer pension plans. It also includes a handful of revenue offsets that were added in large part to ensure the broader measure complied with budget reconciliation rules under which the bill was passed. On the spending side, the law includes substantial assistance to state and local governments, increased funding to speed vaccine production and distribution, another extension – through September 6, 2021 – of the federal supplement to state-level unemployment benefits, plus additional funds for housing and nutrition assistance. For a more extensive overview of the final version of the American Rescue Plan, including a detailed discussion of its revenue provisions, see Tax News & Views, Vol. 22, No. 11, Mar. 10, 2021. (Also see separate coverage in this edition for an alert from Deloitte Tax addressing compensation and benefits provisions in the new law.) URL: https://dhub.blob.core.windows.net/dhub/Newsletters/Tax/2021/TNV/210310_1.html What’s next? Enactment of the American Rescue Plan marks the completion of the Biden administration’s first major fiscal initiative. Attention is likely now to turn to an economic recovery package – dubbed by the White House as the “Build Back Better” plan – that the president and congressional Democrats hope to move later this year. The Build Back Better plan is expected to emphasize infrastructure investment and climate change mitigation, while potentially also calling for additional health care spending and incentives for research and development and domestic manufacturing. (See separate coverage in this issue for details on a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing on the potential role of the tax code in addressing infrastructure issues.) But many critical questions remain unresolved at this point – including the overall price tag of the potential package and the extent to which it should be paid for, if at all, through tax increases. These issues could help determine whether Democrats and Republicans are able to work together on a bipartisan bill or whether Democrats again attempt to leverage the budget reconciliation process to eliminate the need to gain support from congressional Republicans. (To utilize reconciliation, congressional Democrats would have to adopt a budget resolution for upcoming fiscal year 2022 – a process that itself could prove challenging due to the varying fiscal views of moderates and progressives within their caucus.) The concerns of certain moderate Democratic senators notwithstanding, changing the Senate’s filibuster rule (the procedural rule that requires 60 votes to end debate) also has not been entirely ruled out. We may get a clearer idea of the tax and spending proposals President Biden intends to pursue when he releases his budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 later this spring. Tax News & Views Page 2 of 10 Copyright © 2021 Deloitte Development LLC March 12, 2021 All rights reserved. — Alex Brosseau Tax Policy Group Deloitte Tax LLP Taxwriters preview ‘Build Back Better’ debate at Ways and Means subcommittee hearing A March 11 House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee hearing on “tax tools to help local governments” provided a possible table-setter for the upcoming congressional debate over President Biden’s yet-to-be-released COVID-19 economic recovery package known as the “Build Back Better” plan. Although specifics of the Build Back Better plan are scarce, the president has indicated that it will emphasize infrastructure investments, health care spending, and climate change mitigation, and may also include incentives for research and development and domestic manufacturing. Economic growth through infrastructure investment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Thompson, D-Calif., noted in his opening statement at the hearing that the COVID-19 pandemic has left many US cities and counties facing the twin threats of declining revenues and an increased demand for services, which can be addressed through “substantial” federal investments in infrastructure projects. To that end, Thompson said he hopes to expand on the Moving Forward Act, a $1.5 trillion package approved in the House last year that called for a five-year reauthorization of highway and mass transit spending, as well as large outlays related to upgrading schools and child care facilities, expanding the nation’s stock of affordable housing, delivering broadband Internet access to underserved communities, upgrading drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, modernizing the electric grid to accommodate more renewable energy sources, investing in health care- and postal service-related upgrades, and boosting Amtrak funding to accommodate upgrades and expansions of passenger rail service. On the tax side, that legislation included a number of proposals intended to spur private investment in infrastructure, housing, and low-income neighborhoods, such as reinstating tax credit bonds similar to the now-expired Build America Bonds program; reinstating the tax-exempt status of interest on advance refunding bonds, which was repealed as part of 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA, P.L. 115-97); and permanently extending the new markets tax credit and enhancing the low-income housing tax credit. It also proposed a long list of tax incentives aimed at encouraging renewable energy and energy efficiency. Notably, the Moving Forward Act did not call for an increase in fuel excise taxes or other significant tax or spending offsets to cover the anticipated reduction in federal receipts resulting from the new and expanded tax incentives. (For additional details, see Tax News & Views, Vol. 21, No. 33, June 26, 2020.) URL: https://newsletters.usdbriefs.com/2020/Tax/TNV/200626_1.html Tax News & Views Page 3 of 10 Copyright © 2021 Deloitte Development LLC March 12, 2021 All rights reserved. At the hearing, witnesses speaking on behalf of state and county governments – including Stephen K. Benjamin (representing the US Conference of Mayors), Kevin Boyce (representing the National Association of Counties), Elizabeth Reich (chief financial officer for the City of Dallas), and Randy Howard (of the Northern California Power Agency), all of whom were invited by the panel’s Democrats – agreed that bringing back tax credit bonds and restoring the tax exemption for advance refunding bonds would make it easier for localities to secure affordable funding for infrastructure projects. “Keeping infrastructure costs low is critical to job creation and infrastructure investments that are the backbone of our economy,” Benjamin noted in his written statement. They also uniformly called for permanently extending the new markets tax credit and repealing the current- law cap on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT). Possible areas of bipartisan agreement Subcommittee ranking member Adrian Smith, R-Neb., agreed that the tax code can be “a valuable tool” to support infrastructure investments and noted that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “intentionally” retained the tax- exempt status of municipal bonds “because of their importance in helping communities meet their basic infrastructure needs.” Smith added that although the TCJA repealed the tax exemption for interest on advance refunding bonds, he would be open to considering “a smarter approach that avoids the stacking of loans and trims the cost to the federal taxpayer.” There is also bipartisan support, Smith said, for economic development incentives such as a permanent extension of the new markets tax credit and an expansion of the TCJA’s Qualified Opportunity Zone program – although he cautioned that Congress should not enhance these incentives without first ensuring that they are working as intended. One issue unlikely to attract Republican support would be repealing the cap on the SALT deduction, Smith said. Smith also noted that