If you open your window in DC today, the sound you hear is holiday cheer beginning to break out. But, work on funding the government and a possible tax package – that may carry the Violence Against Women Act, an extension and/or reforms for the National Flood Insurance Program, and perhaps some disaster assistance funding - continues in Congress. 

Brady 5.0! 

As Chairman struggles to find the right cocktail of tax provisions that will attract Democratic support, he released a new version yesterday. The major difference from the version he produced last week is that it does contain two tax extenders; the railroad maintenance and repair tax credit and the extension and phase out of the biodiesel and renewable diesel provisions. The larger package of tax extenders remains out of this draft. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to consider possible legislation for the House floor later this week. There are rumors that the larger package of tax extenders may be considered as part of a broader negotiation.

Democrats are still signaling that they want to wait until next year when they take control of the House and consider tax legislation then.

Senate Finance Committee

Under the make-new-friends category, the Senate Democrats have selected Senators Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH) to replace the Senators Nelson (D-FL) and McCaskill (D-MO) who lost their re-election bids. Senator Republicans have yet to complete action on their committee members for the next Congress, but those selections should be announced in the coming weeks. 

The House committee selections should also come in the next several weeks. 

Treasury Regulations

The IRS and Treasury have released draft regulations implementing the new 163(j) tax law changes from last year’s TCJA tax law. The IRS also released draft instructions for the draft Form 8990 used to calculate the Sec. 163(j) interest limitation.

Treasury has also released a proposed rule of the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax, known as the BEAT. This tax generally applies multinational corporations that have annual gross receipts of $500M for the past three years. 

Green Book

Chairman Brady recently announced the release of the 2018 version of the Ways and Means Green Book. This publication’s official title is “Background Material and Data on the Programs within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means.” Prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) under the direction of the staff of the Ways and Means Committee. The Green Book combines a description of key health, welfare, retirement, disability, and related programs under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means with current data on these programs, the individuals they serve, and relevant historical information. This document is a great resource for the committee and stake holders on a variety of tax related issues.

This article is provided by Prime Policy Group