adminIn recent meetings on the Hill, League sources have learned the following on potential for tax reform in 2017:
- Law firms and tax analysts are bullish on international tax reform and are pointing to a surface agreement between Speaker Paul Paul Ryan and the next Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer to impact this issue.
- Both Democrats and Republicans say that the next administration will put more effort into tax reform than the Obama Administration did — sources say “doing anything will be doing nothing, which is what Obama and Lew did on tax reform. They just didn’t care for the issue, unless it entailed a simple ‘higher rates’ approach.”
- One Ways and Means source said, “I do think there is one indisputable fact come January 2017 — there will be more political juice behind tax reform than there has been at any point since 1986. Is it enough for full-fledged tax reform? We will see. And a large part of that depends upon how much the new president wants to do on this front. The old problems remain the same, but there will be noted improvements in terms of leadership in each of the three bodies — the House, the Senate, and the administration.”
- Another important point raised by the Ways and Means source — even if there is agreement and movement on international tax reform, it isn’t clear that it will have enough power to pull business and domestic corporate tax reform along for the ride.
We will continue to do our due diligence on tax reform and inform you on developments.
