The
FLTC Tax Report
The
following, from the Forest Landowners Tax Council, updates us on current federal
tax events and legislation affecting non-industrial private forest landowners.
New
Benefit of FLTC Membership:
FLTC members who are
CPA’s, who participate at a certain dues level, and who give written
permission will be listed on the up-coming (January 2003) members-only
webpage at the FLTC site. This helps our members find timber-savvy accounting
services. Get in touch to learn
more about this great opportunity.
Election: Whether
one is a Republican, Democrat, or of another party, the results of the recent
Congressional elections portend great things for those of us who are interested
in tax reform. As the election drew
to a close, pundits agreed that one of the primary initiatives of the White
House - if not THE primary initiative - will be tax reform. And, although there is also a lot of talk about legislation
that needs a super-majority coupled the tribulations of filibuster, we should
all be reminded that tax legislation - by act of congress - is “exempted”
from filibuster! It certainly
appears that we are on the verge of some success. Circumstances favor us. We
have opportunity. But, it will
still take hard work to make things happen…..Here's to hard work!
IRC
Section 631(b): Because the Administration will apparently seek tax reform in
the first session of the 108th Congress, we have requested that
President Bush include the provisions of our Internal Revenue Code Section
631(b)-correcting bills in his tax reform package.
The
bullets below are items of information about our work to correct IRC Sec. 631(b)
to allow most forest landowners to get capital gains treatment on income from
"lump-sum" sales of timber. Note
that the legislation has no affect on forest management. It simply relates to after-harvest income tax law. –
*
In the 107th Congress, our provisions passed the House in the
107th Congress as part of HR 586.
* Since ours is
a small bill, we're told that it needs to be attached to a "larger"
piece of legislation to be considered by the busy congress. So we worked with the Senate Finance Committee to include our
language in the Small Business & Farm Economic Recovery Act.
But, although the correcting provisions were in Committee Max Baucus’s
version (as well as Ranking Member Chuck Grassley’s) it never came to the full
Committee for consideration.
* The American
Land Alliance - as a conservation organization known to the Finance Committee -
wrote a letter of endorsement this fall.
* The Joint
Committee on Taxation finds our provisions have "negligible" effect on
the U.S. Treasury - an effective score of zero, the JCT has also added our
language to its Tax Simplification list (the only timber item on the list).
*
The IRS would like to see the change, according to a memorandum that we
have distributed.
*
This legislation really has no opposition.
FLTC
would like to thank everyone who helped with this effort in the 107th
Congress – especially Rep. Mac Collins and Sen. Jeff Sessions. We would also like to thank the readers of this column for
their help and ask once again for your help toward encouraging President Bush to
include this “JCT-approved,” non-controversial language in his 2003 Tax
Reform package. That inclusion
could go a long way toward getting this legislation passed.
To learn more about S.
567, call FLTC at 703-549-0747 or go to “www.fltc.net”
and click the ‘Hot Issue’ button.
###
The
Forest Landowners Tax Council is an independent non-profit organization
dedicated to providing an effective and unified voice for non-industrial,
private forest landowners on federal tax issues. Membership is open
nationwide. Visit their website at www.fltc.net,
or contact them at e-mail: Director.FLTC.net, tel: 703-549-0747, fax: 703-549-1579.
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send your membership dues and/or donations to:
Forest Landowners Tax Council, P.O. Box 636, Washington, D.C.
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Director@FLTC.net