Taxation & Representation: Capital Gains & Dividends: Trump’s Tax Vision for 2025

Reconciliation State of Play – Debate Continues Over Bill Strategy: As the start of the 119th Congress looms, House Republicans are still debating the timing, contents and number of reconciliation bills to take up, with the ambitious target of passing key legislation in the first 100 days of the incoming Trump administration. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) continues to press for a single reconciliation bill, emphasizing that it would be easier for Republicans to process in a House governed by the slimmest of majorities. However, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), with the backing of incoming White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, maintains that such an approach would miss an opportunity to pass non-tax legislation, namely border protection and “weigh down” the package given the divisions on what to include in tax legislation. Republican leaders intend to settle on a unified strategy before the end of the current Congress.

Ways and Means Committee Gains New Members with Ratio Set: On Dec. 13, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) announced  that House Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement on the standing committee ratios for the 119th Congress. The House Ways and Means Committee will grow by one member on both sides of the aisle, with 26 majority and 19 minority seats. Shortly after, the House Republican Steering Committee recommended the following four new Republicans to join the committee: Reps. Rudy Yakym (R-IN), Max Miller (R-OH), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) and Aaron Bean (R-FL). The House Steering Committee is responsible for recommending members to serve on standing committees in the House of Representatives. The recommendations are subject to approval by the House Republican Conference. Profiles on Reps. Yakym and Miller were included in the Dec. 4 issue  of “Taxation and Representation,” and profiles on Reps. Moran and Bean were included in the Dec. 11 issue .

Trump Considering Cutting Capital Gains and Dividends Taxes: In an interview on Dec. 12, President-elect Donald Trump said that he is open to considering cutting tax rates for capital gains and dividends. While short on details, his comments may indicate that he intends to resurrect plans for the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to develop a regulatory framework to index capital gains to inflation. Similar efforts were explored in the first Trump administration and raised a host of issues regarding the scope and complexity of an indexing regime. Absent such an administrative approach, adjusting the tax rate on capital gains and dividends would require a statutory change, adding another issue for the tax debate among Republicans as the 2025 tax legislation comes together.

Canada Considering Options to Push Back against Threatened U.S. Tariffs and Tax Rate Cuts: With President-elect Donald Trump pledging to extend or make permanent various tax cuts and incentives in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 115-97 ) and potentially enact new tax cuts and tariffs, Canada will be pressured to respond in order to maintain favorable terms in corporate tax and trade.

Republicans Consider Enacting Tariffs on Europe to Respond Against OECD Framework: With Republicans in control of the 119th Congress and the White House, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) two-pillar global economic framework will be in the crosshairs—and Republicans may seek not only to sink the deal, but to enact retaliatory tariffs against signatory countries that impose discriminatory or extraterritorial taxes on U.S. multinationals. House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hern (R-OK) said that tariffs “will be a necessary way to respond” should Europe seek to enact digital services taxes (DSTs) or minimum taxes on U.S. multinational corporations operating in Europe, due to concerns that the imposition of these taxes would result in a large loss of revenue that would have otherwise flowed to the United States.

#incometax #taxseason #federaltaxpolicy #taxation #EstateTax #Deathtax #wealthtax #taxLegislation #CongressionalCaucus #CapitalGainsTax #incometaxrates #incometaxseason #taxrefund #taxreturn #incometaxreturn #gifttax #Generationskippingtax #InheritanceTax #repealestatetax #FamilyBusiness #promotefamilybusinesses #familyowned #supportlocalbusiness #womeninbusiness #AdvocatingForFamilyBusinesses #Generationallyowned #Multigenerationalbusiness  @FamilyEnterpriseUSA @PolicyAndTaxationGroup @DitchTheEstateTax #FamilyEnterpriseUSA #PolicyAndTaxationGroup #DitchTheEstateTax