US Pass-Throughs Set Out Tax Reform Wish List
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By Tax-News
The Parity for Main Street Employers business coalition has issued a new letter that calls on the US Congress to enact tax reform “that is comprehensive, restores tax rate parity for all businesses, and reduces or eliminates the double tax on corporate income by integrating the corporate and individual tax codes.”
The March 17 letter, signed by more than 110 business associations and addressed to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, noted that tax reform needs to be comprehensive, so as to encompass both C corporations and pass-through entities, including partnerships, sole proprietorships, and S corporations.
Pointing out that, with nearly 70m workers employed at pass-through entities, whose profits are passed directly to their owners and are taxed on their individual tax returns, tax reform should “ensure that we avoid harming these critical employers, [and therefore] needs to be comprehensive and improve the tax code for corporations and pass-through businesses alike.”
The letter also urged that Congress should “restore rate parity by reducing the tax rates paid by pass-through businesses and corporations to similar, low levels. The 2012 fiscal cliff negotiations resulted in pass-through businesses paying, for the first time in a decade, a significantly higher top marginal tax rate than C corporations.”
“Taxing business income at different rates penalizes pass-through businesses and encourages planning to circumvent the higher rates,” it added, “ultimately resulting in wasted resources and lower growth.”
Finally, it recommended that “Congress should eliminate the double tax on corporate income [at both the corporate and the shareholder levels] by integrating the corporate and individual tax codes. … A key goal of tax reform should be to continue to reduce or eliminate the incidence of the double tax and move towards taxing all business income once.”
US Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R – Utah) has recently confirmed that he is working on a proposal for corporate tax integration. However, this year’s tax reform efforts in the House of Representatives are being concentrated on international tax reform, with indications that it could include a corporate rate cut (which would increase the disparity with individual tax rates).
Paul S. Herman CPA, a tax expert for individuals and businesses, is the founder of Herman & Company, CPA’s PC in White Plains, New York. He provides guidance and strategies to improve clients’ financial well-being.