Federal Spotlight: Treasury rules update

December 15, 2016

Since the election, there have been positive developments in terms of regulations that have not moved forward. In late November, the IRS held a six-hour public hearing on proposed treasury regulations released in August titled: Estate, Gift, and Generation-skipping Transfer Taxes; Restrictions on Liquidation of an Interest.proposed regulations. Treasury and IRS teams heard testimony from 30 witnesses most of whom strongly oppose the regulations as drafted.

According to Carolyn Lee from NAM, “Testifying on behalf of the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition (FBETC), of which the NAM is an original founder and co-director, was the attorney who drafted the Coalition’s extensive legal comments questioning the validity of Treasury’s approach and the underlying goal of the proposal. Throughout the day, family-owned businesses’ concerns were raised by witness after witness." You can find her blog on the hearing here and the NAM written comments can be found here.  

Treasury staff will not be able to finalize the regulation prior to the end of the Obama Administration.They have thousands of comments to review and which, by law, they need to respond to as part of the finalization process. The inability of Treasury to complete the regulation and finalize it before the change in Administration does not make the regulation disappear. It will continue to be proposed unless it is formally withdrawn or blocked by Congressional action. The NAM is encouraged by indications from allies that this regulation will not be finalized in the near-term and will be opposed by key policymakers in the new Congress.