Employee benefits, individual income tax, international tax, and tax administration are among the 61 recommendations in the compendium.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has sent its 2023 Compendium of Tax Legislative Proposals – Simplification and Technical Proposals to members of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee. This document outlines AICPA’s positions on a number of legislative proposals that are directly related to alteration to the tax laws and can be easily addressed.

The compendium consists of items with a focus on enhancing tax administration, ensuring the tax code is equitable and successfully advancing crucial policy goals. The proposals simplify existing provisions or fix technical issues with the Internal Revenue Code.

The compendium’s 61 recommendations cover a variety of topics, such as employee benefits, individual income tax, international tax, and tax administration. Specific proposals deal with significant issues that affect businesses, taxpayers, and their accounting representatives, such as:

1. Tax treatment of health insurance deductions for employees and self-employed people (pg. 27).
2. Reasonable cause exceptions to the section 6707A and 6662A penalties for all reportable transactions (pg. 41)
3. Refunds of any leftover minimum tax credits from the prior corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) regime (pg. 130).
4. Repeal of the Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) conformity rule (pg. 148).

As Congress continues its tax-related discussions, the AICPA’s Tax Compendium is a valuable resource, according to Edward Karl, CPA, CGMA, vice president for tax policy and advocacy at the AICPA. As per him, many of these suggestions are the kinds of improvements that lawmakers should take into account as they continue to discuss and revise tax legislation. Although the compendium is extensive, the AICPA will continue to add additional comments throughout the legislative session.

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