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GOP moves closer to tax plan, eyes debt ceiling deal

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Republican leaders say they are getting close to agreeing on a plan to pass an extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and an increase to the debt ceiling, as Congress looks to approve an economic package by the end of May.

“I don’t want to get out in front of what the Senate is going to do. But it sounds like we will not be far apart, and that’s a good thing, so we’ll be able to move,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, following a meeting at the Treasury Department on Tuesday. 

Johnson said the Senate was “coming around” to supporting a debt ceiling increase as part of the legislation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he believes “there’s consensus forming around” the debt ceiling plan, an issue that had been a key sticking point between the two chambers for weeks.

A House plan, approved earlier this month, calls for lifting the debt ceiling by $4 trillion as part of the tax legislation, an idea Senate Republicans have been slow to embrace.

Deep divisions still remain among Republicans with at least two Senators — Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama — saying they don’t support the House plan because it could cut Medicaid and other health programs their constituents use.

Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said he’d never vote for the tax package if it contained a debt ceiling increase.

Including the debt ceiling language in the tax bill puts pressure on the party to pass the legislation before the government runs out of room to keep paying its bills on time, which economists anticipate will hit this summer or early fall unless Congress steps in.

House lawmakers say they intend to move even quicker, with a goal of approving the tax cut legislation before the Memorial Day weekend. That’s an ambitious timeline given the remaining divisions within the party and narrow majorities in each chamber that mean the GOP will largely need to stick together to pass the bill.

Republicans are hoping to score a legislative win to soothe markets that have been roiled by the haphazard rollout of Trump’s tariff policies. Party leaders have warned that failing to extend the 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year, for individuals and privately held businesses could upend markets and economic expectations.

“We have to bring stability to the market,” Johnson said earlier Tuesday, adding that negotiators need to give people certainty so they can “make decisions about expanding their businesses and jobs.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, along with Trump’s National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, hosted the meeting of the so-called “Big Six” tax negotiators at the Treasury Department with Thune and Johnson. Senator Mike Crapo and Representative Jason Smith, who chair the tax committees in each chamber, also attended.

Bessent, in a readout of the meeting issued by the Treasury Department, said it was a “productive meeting” that “gives me confidence that a swift timeframe is achievable.”

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio warned House Republicans earlier Tuesday of the dangers of rising U.S. deficits. House lawmakers said it reinforced their push to offset any new tax cuts with spending reductions, according to lawmakers who attended a private meeting with the former hedge-fund manager. Those spending cuts, including potential reductions to Medicaid, are making some GOP senators squeamish.

There’s also opposition in the House, where Republicans hold an extremely narrow majority. Representative David Schweikert, an Arizona Republican, has repeatedly warned the tax bill should be offset with spending cuts or other revenue raisers, in order to lower federal debt loads. That view is not particularly popular among the GOP leadership.

To get a tax package passed by the end of May, House and Senate negotiators will have to settle on a shared approach. Thune set the week of April 7 as the deadline for the Senate to pass a budget resolution outlining the tax cuts.

House Republicans passed their version of a tax blueprint earlier this month that agreed to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts along with $2 trillion in spending reductions. But Senate Republicans want to change the blueprint to add trillions more in tax cuts without more spending cuts. 

Republicans must also align on the overall size of the package, which tax elements to include and how to offset the cost of the cuts, a dynamic that is sure to pit fiscal hawks against members seeking tax breaks.

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Accounting

House passes tax administration bills

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The House unanimously passed four bipartisan bills Tuesday concerning taxes and the Internal Revenue Service that were all endorsed this week by the American Institute of CPAs, and passed two others as well.

  • H.R. 1152, the Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act, sponsored by Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Illinois, Suzan Delbene, D-Washington, Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, Brad Schneider, D-Illinois, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania and Jimmy Panetta, D-California. The bill would apply the “mailbox rule” to electronically submitted tax returns and payments to allow the IRS to record payments and documents submitted to the IRS electronically on the day the payments or documents are submitted instead of when they are received or reviewed at a later date. The AICPA believes this would offer clarity and simplification to the payment and document submission process while protecting taxpayers from undue penalties.
  • H.R. 998, the Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act, sponsored by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Brad Schneider, D-Illinois, which would require notices describing a mathematical or clerical error to be made in plain language, and require the Treasury to provide additional procedures for requesting an abatement of a math or clerical error adjustment, including by telephone or in person, among other provisions.
  • H.R. 517, the Filing Relief for Natural Disasters Act, sponsored by Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, and Judy Chu, D-California. The process of receiving tax relief from the IRS following a natural disaster typically must follow a federal disaster declaration, which can often come weeks after a state disaster declaration. The bill would provide the IRS with authority to grant tax relief once the governor of a state declares either a disaster or a state of emergency and expand the mandatory federal filing extension under Section 7508(d) of the Tax Code from 60 days to 120 days, providing taxpayers with more time to file tax returns after a disaster.
  • H.R. 1491, the Disaster related Extension of Deadlines Act, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Murphy, R-North Carolina, and Jimmy Panetta, D-California, would extend the amount of time disaster victims would have to file for a tax refund or credit (i.e., the lookback period) by the amount of time afforded pursuant to a disaster relief postponement period for taxpayers affected by major disasters. This legislative solution would place taxpayers on equal footing as taxpayers not impacted by major disasters and would afford greater clarity and certainty to taxpayers and tax practitioners regarding this lookback period.

“The AICPA has long supported these proposals and will continue to work to advance comprehensive legislation that enhances IRS operations and improves the taxpayer experience,” said Melanie Lauridsen, vice president of tax policy and advocacy for the AICPA, in a statement Tuesday. “We are pleased to work closely with each of these Representatives on common-sense reforms that will benefit taxpayers, tax practitioners and tax administration and we’re encouraged by their passage in the House. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to improve the taxpayer experience.”

The bills were also included in a recent Senate discussion draft aimed at improving tax administration at the IRS that are strongly supported by the AICPA.

The House also passed two other tax-related bills Tuesday that weren’t endorsed in the recent AICPA letter. 

  • H.R. 1155, Recovery of Stolen Checks Act, sponsored by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-New York, would require the IRS to create a process for taxpayers to request a replacement via direct deposit for a stolen paper check. If a check is determined to be stolen or lost, and not cashed, a taxpayer will receive a replacement check once the original check is cancelled, but many taxpayers are having their replacement checks stolen as well. Taxpayers who have a check stolen are then unable to request that the replacement check be sent via direct deposit. The bill would require the Treasury to establish processes and procedures under which taxpayers, who are otherwise eligible to receive an amount by paper check in replacement of a lost or stolen paper check, may elect to receive such amount by direct deposit.
  • H.R. 997, National Taxpayer Advocate Enhancement Act, sponsored by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, would prevent IRS interference with National Taxpayer Advocate personnel by granting the NTA responsibility for its attorneys. In advocating for taxpayer rights, the National Taxpayer Advocate often requires independent legal advice. But currently, the staff members hired by the National Taxpayer Advocate are accountable to internal IRS counsel, not the Taxpayer Advocate, creating a potential conflict of interest to the detriment of taxpayers. The bill would authorize the National Taxpayer Advocate to hire attorneys who report directly to her, helping establish independence from the IRS. 

House  Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Missouri, applauded the bipartisan House passage of the various bills, which had been unanimously passed by the committee.

“President Trump was elected on the promise of finally making the government work better for working people,” Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “This bipartisan legislation helps fulfill that mandate and makes improvements to tax administration that will make it easier for the American people to file their taxes. Those who are rebuilding after a natural disaster particularly need help filing taxes, which is why this set of bills lightens the load for taxpayers in communities struck by a hurricane, tornado or some other disaster. With Tax Day just a few days away, we must look for common-sense, bipartisan ways to make filing taxes less of a hassle.”

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Accounting

In the blogs: Many hats

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Teaching fraud; easement settlement offers; new blog on the block; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Many hats

  • Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): There’s sure an “I” in this “teamwork:” What to know about potential IRS and ICE collaboration.
  • Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): How IRS data would likely be unhelpful validating SNAP eligibility.
  • Yeo & Yeo (https://www.yeoandyeo.com/resources): How financial benchmarking (including involving taxes) can help business clients see trends, pinpoint areas for improvement and forecast future performance.
  • Integritas3 (https://www.integritas3.com/blog): One way to take a bite out of crime, according to this instructor blogger: Teach grad students how to detect, investigate and prevent financial fraud.
  • HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): Verifying income, fairly distributing property, digging the soon-to-be-ex’s assets out of the back of the dark, dark closet: How forensic accounting has emerged as a crucial element in divorces.

Standing out

Genuine intelligence

  • AICPA & CIMA Insights (https://www.aicpa-cima.com/blog): How artificial intelligence and other tech is “Reshaping Finance,” according to this podcast. Didem Un Ates, CEO of a U.K.-based company offering AI advisory services, tackles the topic.
  • Taxjar (https:/www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): How AI and automation can help even the knottiest sales tax obligations and problems.
  • Dean Dorton (https://deandorton.com/insights/): Favorite opening of the week: “The madness doesn’t just happen on college basketball courts — it also happens when your finance team is stuck using a legacy on-premises accounting system.”
  • Canopy (https://www.getcanopy.com/blog): Top client portals for accounting firms in 2025.
  • Mauled Again (https://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Despite what Facebook claims, dependents have to be human.

New to us

  • Berkowitz Pollack Brant (https://www.bpbcpa.com/articles-press-releases/): This Florida firm offers a variety of services to many industries and has a good, wide-ranging blog. Recent topics include the BE-10, nexus and state and local tax obligations, IRS cuts and what to know about the possible bonus depreciation phase out. Welcome!

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Accounting

Is gen AI really a SOX gamechanger?

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By streamlining tasks such as risk assessment, control testing, and reporting, gen AI has the potential to increase efficiency across the entire SOX lifecycle.

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