{"id":1513,"date":"2019-09-17T11:26:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T18:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/feusa\/from-the-president-9-9-weekly-update\/"},"modified":"2019-09-17T11:26:08","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T18:26:08","slug":"from-the-president-9-9-weekly-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/estate-taxes\/from-the-president-9-9-weekly-update\/","title":{"rendered":"From the President \u2013 9-9 \u2013 Weekly Update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I want to thank all of the Family Enterprise USA andPolicy<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Taxation<\/span>\u00a0Group members that flew into Washington, DC to participate in our combined Board Meetings and Capitol Hill visits.<\/div>\n
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Having family business leaders join us on Capitol Hill as we explain the need for the elimination of the death tax \u2013 as well as our proposal for a rate reduction to help us get there \u2013 is invaluable.<\/div>\n
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The most effective lobbyist for your message is you, the business leader and constituent of the members of Congress.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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And it\u2019s not a one-way street. One of the newest FEUSA members who had never lobbied before said the time and investment was well worth it. He learned firsthand how our democratic system works, perfected his pitch to congressional members and their staff, and left with a great appreciation for the work our organizations do.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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While our meetings were productive and we hope they will bear fruit soon especially in regards to the introduction of a rate reduction bill in the House, the feedback from those in attendance regarding our dinner guest was universal praise.<\/div>\n
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Representative Bill Huizenga (MI-2-R), a third generation sand and gravel pit business owner, was extremely engaging and genuine. His recent experience with the death tax with the recent passing of his mother gave him some firsthand knowledge on what other business owners will go thru.<\/div>\n
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And while he lamented the fact that his business interests didn\u2019t hit the current exemption, he was interested in helping us any way he could including an Op-Ed about his experience and the need for full repeal!<\/div>\n
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After a six-week summer recess, Congress returned to Washington, DC with a full plate of work and a limited timetable to produce results.<\/div>\n
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In many ways, the next few months may be the last chance for this Congress to produce any real legislation until 2021. Lawmakers in both parties agree the partisan politics of the 2020 election will kick into high gear as soon as January, making any deal-making and compromise all the more difficult.<\/div>\n
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That doesn\u2019t leave Congress much time as the House only has 13 legislative days in September before they leave for another two-week recess \u2014 and only 45 legislative days left in the year. Senators are scheduled to be in DC for only 53 days before the end of the year.<\/div>\n
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The immediate concern, of course, is to keep the government open as current funding ends on September 30. We expect the House and Senate will need more time to negotiate the appropriations funding bills and will approve a time extension to allow them to get this done without a shutdown.<\/div>\n
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Other significant items they might consider during this end of year window also includes tighter gun restrictions, the rewrite of NAFTA, and lower prescription drugs.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Of course, what concerns us most is the possible tax agenda, and we learned that it is expected that a deal might be made on the various tax proposals in DECEMBER.<\/div>\n
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Why is that relevant?<\/div>\n
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For those that have seen the FEUSA\/PATG presentation on the history of the death tax, you\u2019ll recall that all of the tax deals that impacted our issue seem to happen in December while business is wrapping up for the year. We expect this tax bill to include a recently House-passed retirement savings bill, possible some extenders, and maybe even some \u201cgreen\u201d energy provisions.<\/div>\n
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You may recall that the House Ways & Means approved tax extenders bill used a clawback of the doubling of the estate tax extension to finance their spending. We don\u2019t believe that will have traction in any final measure that\u2019s approved, but we continue to press for its removal.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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CAPITOL HILL HAPPENINGS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
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Wyden Unveils His Own Wealth Tax Targeting Investments:<\/a>\u00a0Senator Ron Wyden unveiled his own wealth tax on Thursday, taking a slightly different approach to targeting the same non-wage income as proposals from Democratic presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The plan to tax some investments annually, rather than when they\u2019re sold, would apply to taxpayers who earned at least $1 million or have assets worth $10 million for the previous three years. Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, is seeking to require wealthy investors to pay the Internal Revenue Service every year on the amount their assets have appreciated, changing a longstanding feature of the tax code that\u00a0taxes<\/span>\u00a0aren\u2019t due until something is sold.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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CAMPAIGN TRAIL<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0Bernie Sanders:<\/div>\n
\u00a0Sanders proposes $16.3 trillion climate change plan.<\/a><\/div>\n
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders unveiled a climate change strategy on Thursday that would mobilize $16.3 trillion<\/strong><\/span> to help the U.S. generate 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030 and achieve \u201cfull decarbonization\u201d by 2050.<\/div>\n
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The plan would \u201claunch a decade of the Green New Deal,\u201d a 10-year federal \u201cmobilization\u201d that would factor climate change into every policy<\/span>\u00a0action from immigration to foreign\u00a0policy<\/span>\u00a0while promising to create 20 million jobs in the process.<\/div>\n
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The plan outlines dozens of\u00a0policies<\/span>\u00a0aimed aggressively moving the United States off of fossil fuels in the electricity, transportation and building sectors, restoring U.S. leadership and financial aid under the Paris Climate Agreement and pouring trillions of dollars to assist fossil fuel workers and vulnerable minority communities in the transition to a green economy.<\/div>\n
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The campaign says the plan would be funded through trillions of dollars in higher taxes<\/span>\u00a0on fossil fuel companies and the rich, scaled back military spending, and more.<\/div>\n
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Elizabeth Warren:<\/div>\n
Warren claims her tax plan only asks the super-rich for \u201ctwo cents.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0But how much of a hit would billionaires and their peers really take if she implemented a 2 percent annual wealth tax on people with more than $50 million of assets?\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Annie Linskey reports: \u201cThe 15 largest fortunes in the country would be, on average, half their current size if the tax had been in place since 1982, according to new figures published by a pair of economists who helped Warren write her wealth tax proposal<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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Instead of $97 billion, Microsoft founder Bill Gates would now have $36.4 billion, according to the figures. Rather than $44.9 billion, Walmart heiress Alice Walton would be sitting on $15 billion. Instead of $160 billion, Amazon founder (and Washington Post owner) Jeff Bezos would have $86.8 billion.<\/div>\n
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Some economists, seizing on such numbers, say Warren\u2019s tax could do more than just make the wealthy uncomfortable: \u201cIt could erase great fortunes.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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The Berkeley duo of Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman are usually the economists most associated with Warren\u2019s wealth tax \u2014 after all, they supplied the estimate that the levy would raise some $2.75 trillion over a decade.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Now, Saez and Zucman are expanding upon its defense\u00a0in\u00a0a paper authored by the two economists<\/a>\u00a0that, among other things, takes on critics like former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers who say the tax would raise far less because of how adept the rich have gotten at avoiding the estate tax.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The retort from Saez and Zucman: Critics underestimate the revenue-raising power of the wealth tax by not fully accounting for the estate tax exemptions and the death rate among the rich.\u00a0\u00a0And as for the wealth tax\u2019s experience elsewhere?\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Only three European countries have a wealth tax now, down from a high of a dozen.\u00a0Saez and Zucman argue that the issues that plagued the wealth tax elsewhere \u2014 like the mobility of certain assets \u2014 would matter less in the U.S., which isn\u2019t part of something like the European Union and has an exit tax that would be strengthened under Warren\u2019s proposal.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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The two also warn the U.S. to stay strong, should such a levy ever get into effect: \u201cEuropean wealth\u00a0taxes<\/span>\u00a0were also undermined because of a poor\u00a0policy<\/span>\u00a0response to complaints by merely rich taxpayers. Instead of increasing the exemption threshold, the responses eroded the base or created tax limitations that benefited billionaires the most. Drawing the lesson from this experience, a US wealth tax could avoid this pitfall.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Elizabeth Warren proposes major expansion of Social Security,<\/a>\u00a0in which the wealthy would pay higher\u00a0taxes<\/span>\u00a0to fund a $200 increase in monthly payments to recipients.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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She would impose a 14.8% payroll tax<\/strong> on wages above $250,000, split between employees and employers which she claims would affect less than the top 2% of earners (current rate is 6.2% levied on the first $132,900 of wages).\u00a0Warren would also create a new 14.8% tax on a portion of investment income for individuals making more than $250,000 or families making more than $400,000 a year.<\/div>\n
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STATE NEWS<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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California<\/strong><\/div>\n
California Proposal to Revive Estate and Gift Tax Fails to Advance:\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>S.B. 378 has potentially died in the Senate Rules committee as it has not yet advanced to the Senate floor for a vote. However, similar proposals could arise in the future and there are already some preliminary calls to reintroduce the measure in the next legislative session.<\/div>\n
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Illinois<\/strong><\/div>\n
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to ask legislature for power\u00a0to tax high-end professional services and raise the transfer tax on big-ticket home sales to help bridge budget gap.<\/a><\/div>\n
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New York<\/strong><\/div>\n
New York gives hedge fund manager\u00a0a half-million dollar tax bill\u00a0for vacation home stays.<\/a><\/div>\n
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Hello, sunshine: Carl Icahn, hedge fund billionaire,\u00a0to decamp for no-income tax Florida\u00a0from his native New York.<\/a><\/div>\n
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New-York-vs-Florida-tax-differences<\/a><\/div>\n
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WEEKEND READS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0Taxing<\/span>\u00a0the rich won\u2019t pay for Democratic promises<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0OPINION \u2014 There is a lot to unpack when it comes to the Democratic presidential candidates\u2019 many proposals to transform America, but the real question isn\u2019t whether they will work. They won\u2019t. It\u2019s about how\u00a0these Democrats\u00a0expect to grow the economy to pay for\u00a0their\u00a0plans\u00a0because simply \u201ctaxing<\/span>\u00a0the rich\u201d won\u2019t cut it.\u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Rich Can\u2019t Get Richer Forever, Can They?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by Liaquat Ahamed in The New Yorker: \u201cInequality comes in waves. The question is when this one will break.\u201d\u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Last of the Ayn Rand Acolytes,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by Alexander Sammon in TNR: \u201cThis year\u2019s Objectivist Conference revealed that her cult of hyper-capitalism has a major recruiting problem: All the young people want to be socialists!\u201d\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Corporate panic about capitalism could be a turning point\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n
Opinion\u00a0<\/a>The skepticism is understandable, but it misses the larger political point: Corporate America fears the system is failing. As Dalio wrote, this is an \u201cexistential\u201d moment. The guardians of capitalism seem to realize that they must respond to right-wing populists and left-wing progressives alike or face a worsening political crisis that is already hobbling the country.<\/div>\n
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The corporate panic about capitalism could be a turning point, opening the way for a future president to begin fixing the problems of stagnant wages and inequality that are at the core of America\u2019s disarray.<\/div>\n
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Democratic presidential candidates have been strewing proposals for radical change across the campaign trail: Some are well-considered, but many are wildly impractical and doomed to fail. America\u2019s historical experience teaches us that economic reform succeeds when it goes mainstream, and that\u2019s what\u2019s happening now.<\/div>\n
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The federal deficit increased to more than $1 trillion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the first time that year-to-date deficits have topped that amount in seven years.<\/a>\u00a0From the Wall Street Journal:<\/a>\u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u201cHigher spending on the military,\u00a0rising interest expenses on government debt and weak revenues early in the fiscal year combined to push the deficit up 19% from October through August, compared with the same period a year earlier.<\/div>\n
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Government spending climbed 7%, to $4.1 trillion, outpacing higher federal tax receipts, which grew 3%, to $3.1 trillion.<\/div>\n
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That brought the total deficit to $1.07 trillion so far in fiscal 2019, which started Oct. 1, or 4.4% as a share of gross domestic product. The last time the U.S. recorded a budget gap of that magnitude in the first 11 months of the fiscal year was in August 2012, when the deficit totaled $1.16 trillion, a period when the U.S. was still climbing out of a deep recession.<\/div>\n
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\u201d\u00a0New federal deficit projections soared to $12 trillion through 2029, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. For a government operating on a credit card, that kind of red ink would average 4.7 percent of gross domestic product through the next decade, a significant increase from the 2.9 percent average over the past 50 years<\/div>\n
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(The Hill<\/a>).The CBO explained that the bleaker deficit picture results from the sweeping budget deal passed earlier this month, which erased the caps on federal spending in 2020 and 2021 and is projected to add $1.7 trillion to the U.S. deficit over 10 years (The Hill).\u00a0The CBO report<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The post From the President \u2013 9-9 \u2013 Weekly Update<\/a> appeared first on Policy and Taxation Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to thank all of the Family Enterprise USA andPolicy\u00a0and\u00a0Taxation\u00a0Group members that flew into Washington, DC to participate in our combined Board Meetings and Capitol Hill visits. \u00a0 Having family business leaders join us on Capitol Hill as we explain the need for the elimination of the death tax \u2013 as well as our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[50,11,5],"class_list":["post-1513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estate-taxes","tag-death-tax","tag-estate-tax","tag-family-business"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familyenterpriseusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}