Federal Tax Policy

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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House Misses Opportunity to End IRS Private Tax Collection Program

On June 28, the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) private tax debt collection program survived an effort by the House to bring it to a halt. House legislators struck language in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act (H.R. 2829) that would have put a tight cap on how much funding could have been used to administer the program.

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Wall Street Tax Break Comes under Scrutiny

After decades of flying below the radar screen, a tax policy allowing private equity fund managers to claim their fee-based income as capital gains rather than ordinary income has suddenly become the subject of media scrutiny, congressional hearings and legislation. In June, the Blackstone Group, a large private equity firm, went public with an initial public offering, which resulted in billion-dollar profits for the principals. This triggered House Ways & Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee chairs Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Sen.

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Fiscal Integrity Award Winner: Sen. Charles Grassley

Jun 29, 2007 by Dana Chasin

We here at OMB Watch were so inspired by comments reported in today's Wall Street Journal that we decided to issue a brand new Fiscal Integrity Award. It takes a special person to come to the defense of the integrity of the capital gains tax. In recent weeks, its integrity has increasingly come under question, as members of Congress, the media, and yours truly have been focusing on a loophole that allows private equity fund managers' service compensation to be taxed at the capital gains rate.

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Private Tax Collection Program Remains

Jun 29, 2007 by Matt Lewis

BNA ($) on how the private debt collection program wasn't killed yesterday:

The House passed the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill (H.R. 2829) June 28 on a vote of 240-179 after House Democrats yielded to concerns about plans to shut down the Internal Revenue Service's private debt collection program.

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Who Said This ... and Why?

Jun 28, 2007 by Dana Chasin

OK, in a story on today in BNA about legislation to reform tax laws relating to carried interest, guess who suggested the bill has been introduced because of a recent focus on the private equity and hedge fund industries, and said tax policy should not be targeted at individual sectors... saying it does not make sense to single out one industry and was this a statement in support of a bill to end the targeted tax treatment of an individual sector so as to keep it from remaining singled out, as per current law?

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Shut off Funding for Private Tax Collection?

Jun 27, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee may try to kill the private debt collection program by shutting off its funding. Here's the story: The IRS' use of private debt collectors has retrieved millions in delinquent taxes but has raised questions about collection techniques and privacy rights. The House plans a vote this week on restricting the program's funds. Democrats critical of the program since it was approved by a GOP Congress in 2004 included only $1 million for private debt collection in the 2008 budget for Treasury Department agencies.

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This is Rich: Defending the 'Carried Interest' Tax Break

Jun 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Generally, those enjoying the benefit of a flagrantly inequitable provision in the tax code are discreet in their defense of it. Now that legislation to end private equity and other fund managers' carried interest tax break (for an explication of the issue, click here) has been introduced in Congress, some are bravely, if not so discreetly, attempting to defend it. Some amusing examples from the last couple of days --

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Ways & Means to Examine Fund Managers' Tax Rates

Jun 21, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The House Ways and Means Committee has announced hearings after the July 4 recess to examine tax rates applying to private equity and hedge funds managers. Committee chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) said he and ranking member Jim McCrery (R-LA) agree "it is imperative" that the committee conduct a hearing to explore taxation issues surrounding the "carried interest" issue.

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$32.1 Bn. Alternative Energy Tax Plan Stalls in Senate

Jun 21, 2007 by Dana Chasin

A cloture vote on the $32.1 billion tax title in an energy package failed by three votes in the Senate today, 57-36. Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA) was the only Democrat to vote against cloture; 10 GOP Senators supported it: Coleman (MN), Collins (ME), Crapo (ID), Grassley (IA), Lugar (IN), Roberts (KS), Smith (OR), Snowe (ME), Specter (PA), and Thune (SD).

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Carried Interest

Jun 19, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The New York Times has carried three stories of interest in the last week on ... carried interest. See here, here, and especially here. The issue of the tax rate applied to fee compensation for hedge fund managers has, hitherto, attracted little attention outside a small circle in the financial sector and tax policy makers, but that may be changing. Finance Committee chair and ranking member Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced a bill last week that seeks to reform corporate taxation practices. As the Times explains:

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