With Daniel Lippman PROTECTING THE PASS-THROUGH DEDUCTION: Businesses and trade groups are launching a unified effort to preserve a key tax break. The PROTECT Coalition will push to make permanent the so-called 199A deduction for pass-through entities, which will sunset at the end of 2025 along with a slew of other provisions from the 2017 tax bill. — “There will be a lot of competing interests in 2025 — I call it ‘tax Armageddon,’” said Rosemary Becchi, a tax lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck who is working with the coalition. The 20 percent 199A deduction “is a really important component to businesses and creates, you know, not exact parity, but creates more parity” with corporations paying the 20 percent corporate tax rate, which does not expire,” Becchi argued. — Becchi told PI the firm had heard about the issue from “a lot of clients and non-clients,” adding that Russ Sullivan, who chairs Brownstein’s tax practice and will also be working with the coalition, has been traveling the country to speak to family-owned businesses operating as pass-through entities, “and this is number one on their list that they're very concerned” about. — Part of the coalition’s task will be to emerge victorious from “a really hard conversation” about what to prioritize in the tax talks and how to pay for a tax package amid concerns about who will benefit most from tax breaks (mostly among Democrats) and the deficit (among members of both parties). — That will involve reiterating to lawmakers why pass-through entities may not want to restructure themselves as C corporations as well as refuting some analyses that have found the vast majority of benefits from the 2017 bill have flowed to top earners. — Becchi declined to name any members of the coalition aside from the Real Estate Roundtable, whose President and CEO Jeffrey DeBoer said in a statement that two million real estate businesses are organized as partnerships. Happy Friday and welcome to PI. What will you be working on next week when Congress returns? My inbox is open: coprysko@politico.com. And be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. TECH GROUP ASKS FOR CRYPTO DEBATE QUESTION: Chamber of Progress, the left-leaning tech industry group, is pressing ABC News ahead of next week’s presidential debate to devote some airtime to cryptocurrency. — “For the 18 million Americans currently holding or trading in cryptocurrency, passing bipartisan digital asset regulations is front and center this election cycle,” the group said in a letter Thursday to the network and the two debate moderators, Linsey Davis and David Muir. — “Voters deserve to know where the nominees stand on crypto before they head to the ballot box in November,” the letter argues, noting that Donald Trump has reversed course from a crypto skeptic during his presidency to a full embrace of digital assets in recent months. — Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, “has not yet announced a cryptocurrency policy agenda.” While Biden administration financial regulators have clashed with the crypto industry repeatedly, the letter says, “a top advisor recently spoke positively about Harris’ interest in crypto regulation that protects consumers.” — “Both candidates should shed more light on their positions,” the letter continues. “A crypto question at September’s debate could bring voters some much-needed clarity on this important issue.” U.S. TRAVEL RAPS DOT: One of the travel industry’s main trade groups teed off on a probe of airline reward programs announced this week by the Transportation Department, accusing the department of “micromanaging” a “a well-functioning marketplace.” — “It is stunning that the federal government would waste precious time micro-managing airline rewards programs beloved by 80% of travelers,” Geoff Freeman, the head of the U.S. Travel Association, said in a statement. Freeman accused DOT of a “lack of focus and ability to prioritize real problems,” highlighting thousands of vacancies among air traffic controllers. — On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg fired off letters to American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines to request data on their loyalty programs in order to assess their impacts on competitiveness and whether “consumers are getting the value that was promised to them,” per our Oriana Pawlyk. — Scrutiny of rewards programs in general has grown out of the Biden administration’s crusade against so-called junk fees and the fight in Congress to clamp down on credit card swipe fees, which the travel and banking sectors have warned could gut such perks. — On the heels of Buttigieg’s announcement, U.S. Travel is also circulating a one-pager aimed at refuting the rationale behind the inquiry while maintaining that the effort “will only end in regulation that will bring about the exact issues they are trying to prevent.” MUSK READ: “In a live-streamed conversation on X with former President Donald J. Trump last month, Elon Musk raised the idea of a ‘government efficiency commission.’ Such a council could ensure that taxpayers’ money was ‘spent in a good way,’ Mr. Musk said during their more-than-two-hour talk.” — “On Thursday, Mr. Trump followed up on Mr. Musk’s suggestion. In a speech at the Economic Club of New York, Mr. Trump said he planned to appoint Mr. Musk, who leads Tesla, SpaceX and X, as the head of a new government efficiency commission if he was elected president in November,” The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, Teddy Schleifer and Maggie Haberman write — the latest demonstration of how Musk “has started to influence Mr. Trump as the Republican presidential nominee heads into November’s election.” — “That the tech mogul has the ear of the candidate throws open what each can get out of an alliance — and creates a potential minefield. Their political friendship is particularly tricky because Mr. Musk has a sprawling set of businesses, which may present conflicts of interest if Mr. Trump is elected.” SPEAKING OF X: Our Sam Clark reports that the gutting of the platform’s public policy operation continues, with vice president of global affairs Nick Pickles announcing today that he’ll be leaving the company. — “Pickles ran global affairs at the Elon Musk-owned social media firm since 2022 and was considered the firm's Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino's right hand man on public policy. He said in a post on the platform that he'll leave the company this week after a stint of more than 10 years, and is taking time off before starting a “new challenge.’” — “Pickles, a former U.K. parliamentary candidate for the Conservative party, is one of the few high-profile figures at the company to have stayed on after Elon Musk took over in October 2022. Pickles' post did not mention Musk, who in recent months has engaged in high-profile battles with governments, regulators and courts around the world.” PARKLAND SURVIVOR FLEXES POLITICAL MUSCLE: “Ever since [David] Hogg survived the 2018 Valentine’s Day shooting at his Parkland, Florida, high school, which killed 17 of his classmates and educators, he’s become a national leader in the push for gun control and a formidable up-and-comer in Democratic politics,” Mark Keierleber writes for The Trace and The74. — “His latest effort is Leaders We Deserve, a political action committee formed in 2023 that has raised nearly $8.5 million in the past year to elect Gen Z and millennial progressives to state and national office.” — “The PAC aims to find young Democrats running for office, flood their campaigns with cash, offer strategic advice, provide a team of volunteers, and work with the candidates to build a winning platform.” — He says the strategy has already notched wins, pointing to the recent election of Molly Cook, Texas’ youngest and first openly LGBTQ state Senator. “Leading up to the May election, Hogg’s PAC bolstered Cook’s campaign with $300,000 in financial backing, money used to blanket her district with mailings and digital ads.” — “As Hogg works to ‘elect a ton more Mollys around the country,’ an analysis by The 74 of Federal Election Commission filings and the PAC’s digital ads offers insight into how he has leveraged the trauma and lessons learned from surviving one of America’s deadliest school shootings to build out a well-connected, generously funded political committee.”
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment