On June 20, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said the 1.4 million pending employee retention tax credit (ERTC) claims are getting continued heightened scrutiny, with “the vast majority” of them showing risk of being improper. The agency announced it had completed a detailed review of the pending claims in order to protect taxpayers and small businesses, and said it resulted in plans to deny tens of thousands of improper high-risk ERTC claims. Now, the IRS has started a new round of processing lower-risk claims to help eligible taxpayers.

On July 9, the House Ways & Means Committee approved legislation, H.R.8915, to expand the kinds of education-related expenses that can be paid tax-free from a 529 plan. Among the bill’s provisions is one that would allow NAIFA members to use 529 funds for professional certifications or programs connected with obtaining a postsecondary credential, including those required to obtain a state license.

House Ways & Means Committee Republicans have formed ten issue-specific “tax teams” to work on what to include in the looming 2025 major tax bill. Senate Finance Committee Republicans will tackle these issues in six “working groups.” Both say they “may” include Democrats in their deliberations at some point, but for now, it is an all-GOP effort.

Recurring revenue estimates of the cost of extending the expiring 2017 tax cuts suggest that revenue will play a major role in the debate over the upcoming tax bill in 2025. After at least five revenue estimates, all covering a 10-year period that includes 2028, projections of the revenue lost due to current tax rules keep going up.

A companion Senate bill (S.4398) to the RISE Act introduced last fall in the House (H.R.6007) has been introduced. The RISE Act expands the tax credit available for starting retirement savings plans for very small businesses.

The House-passed tax bill, H.R.7024, remains stalled in the Senate. However, its chief Senate sponsor, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), says the bill is not dead. Sen. Wyden says he continues to work with Senate leadership to schedule Senate floor time on the bill.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has asked for public comments on how to amend current law to allow companies to provide benefits to their independent contractor workers who are not employees.  Sen. Cassidy is ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the committee with jurisdiction over ERISA’s non-tax pension/retirement savings issues. He also serves on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over ERISA’s and other retirement savings tax issues.

A coalition of business groups has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) new and now-final white-collar exemption to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime (OT) rules. A court ruling on the lawsuit could result in a delay in the July 1 effective date of the new rule.

The House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing on April 30 with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as the sole witness. The hearing focused on the Biden budget tax proposals, and on the issues surrounding the scheduled expiration of the 2017 individual and estate tax rules.

Not only are fixed annuities now within the scope of the final fiduciary rule, but also a key tax writer is seeking information from the 12 biggest annuity writers about how annuities are sold. It appears that annuities are approaching being at the center of both Congressional and regulatory attention.

The House Education & the Workforce’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing last month on how to allow states and companies to provide independent contractors with employer-provided benefits without causing them to be classified as employees. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) said at the hearing that he is working on legislation to achieve this result.

The long-awaited final rule on the white-collar exception from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime rules was released last month. The new rule significantly increases the salary threshold below which the white-collar exception does not apply and provides for automatic adjustments to the salary threshold every three years.

In the wee morning hours of March 23—just two hours after the midnight March 22 deadline—Congress completed the fraught process of funding the federal government’s discretionary spending for fiscal year (FY) 2024—six months after FY 2024 began this past October 1. President Biden signed the measure into law the same day. Despite hard lobbying, the final funding package excluded a rider that would have stopped the Department of Labor’s (DOL) work on its fiduciary rule.

On April 10, NAIFA met with the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to express the association’s concerns about the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) proposed fiduciary rule. NAIFA reiterated its long-standing opposition to the rule, citing its probable impact on the accessibility and affordability of professional investment advice for middle-American retirement savers. Late that afternoon, OIRA sent the proposed rule back to DOL for finalization, canceling at least two subsequent previously scheduled stakeholder meetings.

On March 28, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Treasury released a final short-term limited-duration (STLD) health insurance rule. It retains the proposed rule’s new limits of three months duration, with a four-month renewal option for this kind of insurance.

The tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing on April 11 on the TCJA and its expiring individual and estate tax provisions. Predictably, the hearing showcased GOP support for extending the TCJA’s individual and estate tax rules that expire at the end of 2025. Democrats, on the other hand, called for more taxes to be paid by corporations and “the rich.”

Republican Senators are growing increasingly reluctant to vote any time soon on the House-passed bill that would, among other things, allow for more generous business equipment depreciation and business loan interest deductibility. The bill would need 60 votes, and therefore at least ten Republicans, to pass the Senate. However, some key GOP Senators are demanding changes, while others urge waiting until next year when they think they will be in a stronger position.

A bicameral GOP resolution to block the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) now-final worker classification rule has been introduced. On March 21, the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved a Congressional Review Act (CRA) motion to block the rule.

On April 2, the Centers for Medicare, and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rules for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces for 2025. The rules include the requirements applicable to advisors who work with participants in ACA marketplace insurance.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Brendan Boyle (D-PA) have reintroduced their wealth tax legislation that would impose increased tax liability on the ultra-wealthy. The bill would impact taxpayers with household income in excess of $50 million.