In the next few weeks, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will begin accepting federal tax returns for the 2020 tax year. The coronavirus pandemic and multiple pandemic-related relief packages passed last year will make the tax season unique for taxpayers and for the IRS. Congress introduced several tax policy changes in 2020 that will impact […]
Leadership in the U.S. House and Senate came to an agreement in December over the details of a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill, (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021) to be attached to a broader $1.4 trillion omnibus which will fund the federal government for the 2021 fiscal year. The COVID-19 relief bill extends and modifies several provisions first enacted in […]
Tax extenders are no stranger to hitching a last-minute ride on year-end legislation. This year they made another last-minute appearance, finding a hold in their own division of the 5,593-page bill to fund the government through the fiscal year and provide additional coronavirus relief through March. If you’ve followed the extenders debate, you know that […]
Sunday evening, leadership in the U.S. House and Senate came to an agreement over the details of a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill, to be attached to a broader $1.4 trillion omnibus which will fund the federal government for the 2021 fiscal year. Congress also voted to extend a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal […]
As Congress works to provide another round of emergency relief for individuals and businesses impacted by the pandemic and pass a bill funding the government for FY 2021, it is a good time to step back and consider how tax policy affects entrepreneurs and small businesses. In addition to short- and long-term tax policy issues, […]
State tax collections declined 4.4 percent in aggregate through the end of September compared to the same nine months in 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released today. The median state experienced a decline of 3.6 percent, and total state tax collections were $37.4 billion lower in the first nine months of 2020 than […]
Monday, a bipartisan group of congressional policymakers released two compromise relief bills to address the COVID-19 pandemic, totaling about $908 billion: The Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act and the Bipartisan State and Local Support and Small Business Protection Act. The latter bill addresses both state and local aid and liability protection for businesses operating during the […]
On Monday, members of the bipartisan Gang of Eight negotiating an end-of-year pandemic relief package announced that they had settled on language and had divided the package into two bills: a pandemic aid package and a $160 billion state and local support package. Full language is not yet available, and some of the data on […]
Congress is having an unusually busy week as policymakers seek to simultaneously fund the federal government beyond the expiration of the continuing resolution on Friday and provide a second round of economic relief to individuals and businesses after passing the $2.6 trillion CARES Act last March. Lining up closely with the need to fund the […]
A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights the ways federal policymakers and the White House could build on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn. As part of this report, GAO reviewed how the relief measures for businesses and individuals have worked through 2020, including information about tax refund […]