Outlook for Tax Regulation and Enforcement in 2016
December 29, 2015 12:16 PM
"Our biggest issue is the issue price rules," Michael Decker, a managing director and co-head of municipal securities for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said when asked about the tax arena.
"As far as what we can envision going on on the regulatory front in 2016, [issue price] springs to mind," said Dustin McDonald, director of the Government Finance Officer Association's federal liaison center here. "I know it's a big priority of John Cross to get it done."
"Issue price is an important priority and broadly applicable topic," said John Cross, the Treasury Department's associate tax legislative counsel. Cross said he hopes the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service can get final issue price rules out sometime in the spring of next year.
The ABA taxation section's tax-exempt financing committee has "focused a lot over the past couple of years on transportation projects, particularly P3s and allocation and accounting and management contract" rules, said Stefano Taverna, chairman of the American Bar.
There is a lot of interest at Treasury on this topic because of the work being done by a task force chaired by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "This is a fairly early priority in the coming year," said John Cross, the Treasury's associate tax legislative counsel.
"We're seeing a lot of audit notices come out and it takes time for issuers to respond to them," said Linda Schakel, a partner at Ballard Spahr who added, "Some of the questions surprise us.
