As of May 11, 2016, SB 726, IRC Update, has not moved forward in the General Assembly. Senator Rucho asked the Senate yesterday afternoon not to concur with the House’s addition of the leaking underground storage tank provision, which consequently was agreed upon by a vote of 45-1. The next step will be for the House and Senate to convene in a conference committee to discuss the bill and its additional amendment further. The House has yet to announce its conferees, but the Senate’s are as follows:
- Sen. Bob Rucho, Chair
- Sen. Bill Rabon
- Sen. Jerry W. Tillman
- Sen. Tom Apodaca
- Sen. Trudy Wade
- Sen. Floyd B. McKissick, Jr.
NCACPA legal counsel has been proactively reaching out to Senator Rucho and Representative Rick Catlin to discuss and impress urgency upon reaching a resolution on SB 726.
As professionals whom this law greatly impacts, your perspective will have much weight with lawmakers. We ask you to reach out to your area representatives to urge swift resolution of the IRC Update bill.
Rollin Groseclose, NCACPA Chair-Elect and a member of the association’s Tax Committee, has generously provided talking points for members to use as they call upon lawmakers:
- Nearly five months have passed since US Congress enacted significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code. Not knowing our state’s decision on which of those changes it will conform to has had a tremendous impact on taxpayers’ year-end planning.
- Taxpayers continued to face uncertainty January through April of 2016. This required CPAs to discuss the potential implications with clients and to discuss their interest in filing tax returns anyway, or extending the tax returns. Many taxpayers chose to extend their tax returns in order to avoid the potential of having to amend them pending the legislature’s decision. All of this required additional time and cost to taxpayers.
- Now, with many tax returns on extension, affected taxpayers are still unable to file state tax returns with any certainty. It is concerning that Senate Bill 726 may now be deadlocked.
- The longer into 2016 conformity is delayed, the longer taxpayers go without certainty for 2016 as well. With the need to plan as well as make estimated tax payments for the current year, not knowing what IRC conformity will look like creates real challenges and could lead to taxpayers incurring underpayment penalties.
- Of the 20 or so states that have similar “fixed date” conformity statutes, North Carolina is currently among only a few that have not yet addressed IRC conformity to the Federal Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act.
If you need contact information for your lawmaker, please visit the General Assembly’s “Who Represents Me?” page by clicking here.
We sincerely appreciate the efforts of our members in this area, and we indeed have the power to influence our state legislators if we act together! Please let us know how your lawmakers respond to your calls—send any feedback to Sharon Bryson at [email protected].