Health Care Bill Out, and Perhaps Tax Reform Bill Coming!
On Friday, March 24th, House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Trump gave up on the Republican "repeal and replace" health care bill designed to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or "ObamaCare"). So even with a Republican (sort of) President and a Republican-controlled Congress, the bill was pulled without a votel!
So now what perhaps should have been first up for the President, it appears the Tax Reform Bill will be pushed, with a "schedule" of enactment by the August recess of Congress. As my readers know from my 11/10/16 and 1/7/17 Newsletters, tax reform could be a big deal, both for business and individual taxpayers, with perhaps even full repeal of the Federal estate tax. I offered a 2-hour CPE webinar (www.cpecredit.com) on "Estate & Succession Planning Under a Trump Administration", and I plan to update and expand that course for presentation on the web once we sat least have the House Ways & Means Committee version of a tax bill introduced in Congress. So watch for new developments, which you always can see in my periodic Newsletters.
CPE Courses for May, 2017 - check out details on www.cpecredit.com.
I have five (5) CPE courses set for May, 2017 - hope you join us for one or more of them. Here is the schedule (check cpe.credit.com for course descriptions, presentation times, and costs):
1 - May 5, 2017 - "Estate & Succession Planning for the 99%" - this lead course reviews all the non-tax reasons, as well as tax reasons, for renewed interest in, and work on, estate planning for your clients - with or without an estate tax, much needs to be done.
2 - May 12, 2017 - "Family Succession Planning Developments - 2012-2017" - here is the place to see details of all legislative and judicial new developments, beginning with the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 and right up to and including newly proposed tax law changes.
3 - May 15, 2017 - (the only 3-hour course) "Trusts, Pass-Through Entities & Family Wealth Planning - for example, late this month, U.S. Senator Thune introduced the "S Corporation Modernization Act of 2017", which contains a number of S corporation changes of note (including allowing IRAs to be qualifying S corporation shareholders). Learn how to combine trusts, FLPs, LLCs, S corporations with core asset management and preservation techniques.
4 - May 19, 2017 - "Family Wealth Valuation Issues Today" - Valuation is a core concept and here you will learn in depth the 10 Key Concepts in Valuation Strategies and Planning.
5 - May 26, 2017 - "Buy-Sell and Deferred Compensation Agreement Planning" - two very different types of contractual agreements that often are at the center of family business succession planning.
Wealth Management.com - "Tax Reform on the Front Burner" (3/22/17) - this is an excellent article available to you online about how and when tax reform may shake out this year and/or next - The Trusts and Estates monthly magazine published by Wealth Management affords tax practitioners practical and in-depth solutions to estate and succession planning problems. CPAs and other tax practitioners certainly should consider this area as important for their best clients, and become involved in estate and succession planning on a regular basis - a practice development opportunity.
Spring Has Arrived Here on the MiddleFork of the Clearwater River in the Central Panhandle of Idaho - Hwy 12 - After a long, snowy winter, it is great to see the birds, including the arrival of robins, the level of the river rising with Spring run-off, and now the daffodils in bloom again - so time to get the flower beds and hanging baskets ready for planting soon!
Regards, Owen Fiore, JD, FioreWealthConsulting