On Wednesday, January 31, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill called the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act. Contained in this bill is a significant reduction to the required amount of Section 142(d) Qualified Residential Project Bonds that must be issued to obtain the 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credit. … Continue Reading
Following in the footsteps of pioneers such as Matthew Lesko, the White House has released a guidebook to the funding available under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. (It should be at least somewhat more authoritative than Gobs and Gobs of Free Stuff,[1] at least as it pertains to the legislation in question.) The approach in the … Continue Reading
This is the second in a series of posts about neutral principles that make for “good” tax-advantaged bond legislation. We pick up our series as the Senate prepares for a final vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill in the coming days. In the last post, we stated the general rule that a good piece of … Continue Reading
This is the first in a series of posts about neutral principles that make for “good” tax-advantaged bond legislation. A good muni bond tax bill deals with refundings. For new programs, it provides the terms and conditions under which the new bonds may be refunded. … Continue Reading
Do you feel it? Good vibes for tax-advantaged bond legislation permeate the air around us. White smoke emerged from the White House on June 24, signifying that the President and key Senate leaders had reached a deal on an infrastructure bill. The deal includes “public private partnerships, private activity bonds, direct pay bonds and asset … Continue Reading
On March 31, 2021, President Biden officially unveiled the planned $2.25 trillion infrastructure bill, marking the beginning of what promises to be a lengthy debate over the appropriate size and scope of infrastructure investment and economic recovery in the country. Who better to guide you through it than our partner, Rodney Slater, former Secretary of … Continue Reading
We invite you to listen to our colleagues, Rep. Bill Shuster, former Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Secretary Rodney Slater, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, in conversation with Paul Burton of The Bond Buyer about the prospects for federal infrastructure legislation. The conversation will happen next Monday, March 15, at 12:30 pm eastern. You can … Continue Reading
We just wanted to remind everyone that today, December 16, 2020 at 4:00 pm Eastern Squire Patton Boggs’ and the Association of Public Finance Professionals (APFP) of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia are hosting a virtual event to remember! The event will feature insights from our colleagues, former Congressman and former Chairman of … Continue Reading
Please join Squire Patton Boggs on Friday, May 8, at 12 pm Eastern time for a one-hour webinar covering the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility, the CARES Act, and Chapter 9. Click here to register. The webinar will be led by our colleagues Karol Denniston, Alethia Nancoo, and David Stewart (former Majority Staff Director for the … Continue Reading
NABL has asked the IRS to issue a Notice that would allow issuers to hold TEFRA public hearings for private activity bonds by phone and that would allow issuers to purchase and sit on their own debt through the end of the COVID-19 crisis without extinguishing the debt, even if the issuer doesn’t use its … Continue Reading
With stories about stimulus and relief from COVID-19 swirling, municipal bond industry groups are springing into action to help Congress and Treasury help us all. NABL sent a letter on Sunday to Congress and Treasury, asking for broad relief on a number of tax topics affected by COVID-19. The request is stated in broad strokes … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, we described Senate Bill 1763, which would authorize a new type of exempt facility bond to be issued for “qualified carbon capture facilities.” Well, on July 19, 2019, freshman House Republican Tim Burchett of Tennessee proposed the Carbon Capture Improvement Act, H.R. 3861, the text of which is identical to the Senate … Continue Reading
On June 10, 2019, Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced Senate Bill 1763 (the “Carbon Capture Bill”), which, if passed, would allow the issuance of exempt facility bonds for “qualified carbon dioxide capture facilities.” The Carbon Capture Bill has bipartisan support as this bill encourages continued use of carbon-generating natural resources by providing … Continue Reading
The midterm elections are (mostly!) over. What’s coming next? No one is in a better position to tell you the answer than our Public Policy colleagues. Here for your reading and savoring are two pieces – a breakdown that spans all areas of law, and an analysis of what the election means specifically for tax … Continue Reading
Hope you all had a nice summer – the blog is officially back from summer break. The Hutchinsons had a good one; we took Charlie to visit his grandparents at the beach in Pensacola, FL, where he went to Waffle House for the first time, and to visit his great-grandparents in Clinton, MS, where he … Continue Reading
Happy New Year to all. When we last spoke, we were all breathing a sigh of relief that tax-exempt private activity bonds were spared the sword in the final tax reform legislation, and we poured out a little eggnog for our old friend, the tax-exempt advance refunding bond, gone too soon. But based on comments from … Continue Reading
Update: The President signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law on December 22, 2017. On that same date, he also executed the Continuing Resolution passed by Congress that permits the federal government to make expenditures through January 19, 2018. This Continuing Resolution also suspends the application of the PAYGO law in respect of the … Continue Reading
Signaling the end of our six-week ride in a runaway cement mixer, the Conference Committee for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has released its Conference Report, which represents a compromise version of the House and Senate-passed versions of the Act. Each chamber has the votes to enact the compromise bill; they’ll do it, and … Continue Reading
At about 2:00 a.m. EST on Saturday, December 2, 2017, the only people awake in Washington, D.C. were alcoholics, the unemployable, and angry loners. Also awake were members of the United States Senate (but I repeat myself). At that early hour, the Senate passed its version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) by … Continue Reading
We summarized last week the tax-exempt and tax-advantaged bond provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”), as introduced and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. As a reminder, these provisions, which came as a shock to state and local governments, 501(c)(3) organizations, and others involved with public finance, would eliminate … Continue Reading
Notwithstanding repeated assurances from all corners that tax reform wouldn’t touch the exclusion from gross income of interest on tax-exempt bonds (here, here, and here), proposed legislation would touch it indeed, and quite profoundly. The opening statement in what is sure to be a long legislative discussion on tax reform came this morning, as the … Continue Reading
The National Association of Bond Lawyers submitted eight legislative proposals to Treasury on August 22 with the stated purpose of improving the efficiency of tax-advantaged financing of much-needed public infrastructure projects (here is a link to the proposals). The proposals would broaden the availability and simplify the existing forms of tax-exempt bonds as well as … Continue Reading
The new Congressional session is heating up, and we’ll cover two new pieces of proposed legislation below. For the first time in several years, we can avoid giving the usual disclaimer that any new piece of legislation is “likely going nowhere.” Tax reform appears to be a real possibility for the first time in many … Continue Reading
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Senator John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) have sponsored a bill to encourage private parties to help repair the nation’s infrastructure by encouraging the broader use of public-private partnerships, or P3s. The bill, called “The Move America Act of 2015,” proposes a new type of tax-exempt bond, the “Move America Bond.” (Move America Bonds will … Continue Reading
