PRESIDENTIAL POLL FOR THE WEEK
Last week was a bad week for Hillary Clinton. But the Democratic presidential nominee is still ahead of Donald Trump in the latest poll conducted by Morning Consult. In a four-way race, Clinton leads Trump by two percentage points:
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Source: Morning Consult
LEGISLATIVE LANDSCAPE
CR-nara Congress, Part II: Senate leaders are still working to finalize an agreement on the CR—the stopgap government funding measure is expected to run from Oct. 1 through Dec. 9. On Sept. 19, the Senate postponed a key procedural vote as lawmakers and their staff continued to hash out the details of a deal. The cloture vote on the motion to proceed H.R. 5325, the legislative vehicle for the CR package, is now scheduled...
Senate Finance to Hold Markup of Pension Bills. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced a markup of two pension related bills, the Miners Protection Act of 2016 and the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2016, on Sept. 21...
House Freedom Caucus v. John A. Koskinen: An Impeachment Story. Internal Revenue Commissioner John Koskinen got a reprieve last week when moderate Republicans in the House convinced their conservative colleagues to postpone a vote to impeach Koskinen. Conservatives of the House Freedom Caucus will now get a formal impeachment hearing via the House Judiciary Committee. Both moderate and conservative Republicans consider the postponement a “victory.” House leaders breathed a sigh of relief, as they saw the doomed...
Ways and Means to Hold Markup of Tax Legislation. The House Ways and Means Committee has announced that it will hold a markup of tax legislation on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 2 p.m. in 1100 Longworth. The markup agenda includes the following bills...
House to Consider Miscellaneous Tax Bills. The House is taking up a slew of minor bills this week. Of note are the four bills approved by the Ways and Means Committee last week...
Ways and Means Subcommittee Holds Hearing on College Endowments. On Sept. 13, House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight convened a hearing to explore ways to reduce the cost of a college education. The hearing focused on the actions that a select group of colleges have taken, using their tax-exempt status to make tuition more affordable. Members from both parties highlighted the importance of this issue to middle class Americans, as the national student loan debt recently surpassed the $1 trillion mark...
REGULATORY WORLD
Try, Try Again. Baker & McKenzie LLP recently sued the Treasury Department under theFreedom of Information Act to get information about the 1982 version of earnings stripping regulations. Baker & McKenzie believes that the Treasury Department has improperly withheld documents that contain the IRS’ views on how far the agency could go in combatting earnings stripping. The documents also reportedly include the IRS’s statutory mandate under I.R.C. § 385...
A Prelude to Final Regulations. As the IRS continues to fine-tune the final rules on the types of income that qualify an entity to be considered a master limited partnership, two private letter rulings may contain a preview of the final regulations. Specifically, in PLR 201636025 and PLR 201636039, the IRS noted that interest rate hedging and a regasification terminal generate income that still allow an entity to be classified as a MLP...
Two Bites Out of Apple. In a Sept. 15 Notice (2016-52), the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced their intent to issue regulations under I.R.C. § 909 to address the ability of multinational entities (MNEs) to lower their U.S. tax obligations by claiming a foreign tax credit for taxes paid abroad...
Bad Things Come in Threes. After a $14.6 billion tax ruling and backlash from the release of its new wireless headphones, Apple has been slammed again. Now, Japanese authorities have slapped the company with a back tax bill of $118 million for a failure to pay sufficient withholding tax on royalties to an Irish holding company...
LINE ITEMS
- How Donald Trump will tax passthrough entities is still an open question. His campaign’s recent two-step on the issue is confusing the analysts at the Tax Foundation. The campaign told the National Federation of Independent Business that Trump would tax passthroughs and corporations at the same rate, 15 percent. However, Trump’s policy team gave the Tax Foundation a different story, saying that the candidate is dropping the proposal. Read more.
LOOKING AHEAD
Congressional Activity
Tuesday, 9/20
Senate Banking Committee
The full committee holds a hearing on “An Examination of Wells Fargo's Unauthorized Accounts and the Regulatory Response.” Witnesses include: John Stumpf, chairman and CEO of the Wells Fargo & Company; Comptroller of the Currency Tom Curry; Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and James Clark, chief deputy in the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, testify
Wednesday, 9/21
Senate Finance Committee
The full committee meets for a markup of two pension related bills, the Miners Protection Act of 2016 and the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2016.
House Financial Services Committee
Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee holds a hearing on “Corporate Governance: Fostering a System that Promotes Capital Formation and Maximizes Shareholder Value.”
House Judiciary Committee
The full committee holds a hearing on the allegations of misconduct and articles of impeachment filed against IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
House Ways and Means Committee.
The full committee holds a markup of various tax legislation. Wednesday’s Full Committee markup is a continuation of the September 14 markup.
Thursday, 9/22
House Financial Services Committee
The full committee holds a hearing on "The Annual Report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council."
House Financial Services Committee
Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee holds a hearing "Examining the Agenda of Regulators, SROs (self-regulatory organization), and Standards-Setters for Accounting, Auditing, and Municipal Securities."
House Education and the Workforce Committee
The Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee holds a hearing on "Discussion Draft to Modernize Multiemployer Pensions."
Friday, 9/23
House Financial Services Committee
The Monetary Policy Subcommittee holds a hearing on “The Financial Stability Board’s Implications for U.S. Growth and Competitiveness.”
Agency Activity
Tuesday, 9/20
FDIC
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) holds a meeting to consider Memorandum and resolution re: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Establishing Restrictions on Qualified Financial Contracts of Certain FDIC-Supervised Institutions; Revisions to the Definition of Qualifying Master Netting Agreement and Related Definitions; Memorandum and resolution re: Regulatory Capital Rules, Liquidity Coverage Ratio; Revisions to the Definition of Qualifying Master Netting Agreement and Related Definitions; Memorandum and resolution re: Designated Reserve Ratio for 2017; Summary reports, status reports, reports of the Office of Inspector General, and reports of actions taken pursuant to authority delegated by the Board of Directors.
Federal Reserve Board
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) holds a closed meeting, beginning at 9 a.m. The FOMC is the policy-making arm of the Federal Reserve, September 20-21.
Thursday, 9/22
Financial Stability Oversight Council
Secretary Lew will preside over an executive session of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (Council) at the Treasury Department. The preliminary agenda includes an update on the Council’s review of asset management products and activities; consideration of the Council’s fiscal year 2017 budget; a discussion of a potential proposal by the Office of Financial Research to establish a permanent collection of repurchase agreement data; an update on the Shared National Credit Program; and an update on developments regarding the resilience, recovery, and resolution of central counterparties.
Other Activity
Monday, 9/19
SIFMA
Join SIFMA for another C&L Society Regional Seminar on September 19 at the Ritz-Carlton in Charlotte, North Carolina. This one day seminar will feature presentations by leading securities regulators and industry professionals. Read more.
The National Association of Federal Credit Unions holds its 2016 Congressional Caucus, September 19-21.
Ginnie Mae
Ginnie Mae holds its fourth annual summit to address the future of the government in housing finance. Participants include: Ginnie Mae President Theodore Tozer; and Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.
Tuesday, 9/20
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) holds a discussion on "Toward a Sustainable Economy: Transparency, Long-Termism, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)." Participants include: Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Tyler Gellasch, former counsel to the SEC commissioner; Angela Hanks, associate director for workforce development policy at CAP; Morris Pearl, former business executive; Cheryl Smith, managing partner at Trillium Asset Management; Cynthia Williams. chair in business law at the Osgoode Hall Law School; and Andy Green, managing director of economic policy at CAP
Thursday, 9/22
Taxpayers for Common Sense
Taxpayers for Common Sense holds a discussion on "Showdown at Gucci Gulch Revisited: Lessons Learned from 1986 Tax Reform," focusing on "the obstacles faced - then and now - to passing comprehensive tax reform."