Members of the House Ways and Means Committee seem likely to keep non-qualified deferred compensation provisions out of an important package of small business tax breaks and revenue increases.
Industry watchers at law firms and trade groups gave that assessment this week as Ways and Means leaders scheduled a Feb. 12 markup of the package, the Small Business Tax Relief Act.
The bill, which does not yet have a number, would serve as a supplement to the no-frills House version of the minimum wage increase bill, H.R. 2.
The Senate has passed another version of H.R. 2 that incorporates a long list of tax breaks and revenue increases, including provisions that could sharply limit moderate-income and high-income executives' use of non-qualified deferred comp plans.
The House could pass the small business tax package this week and add it to the House version of H.R. 2.
Members of the House then would have to meet with members of the Senate in a conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of H.R. 2.
Supporters of the tax package say Congress needs to compensate small businesses for the cost of the proposed increase in the minimum wage, and also to raise revenue to pay for the small business tax breaks.
"Even if these provisions are not included in the final Minimum Wage Bill, we believe they will be reformulated and brought up again this year," lawyers at Williams & Jensen P.L.L.C., Washington, write in a note to the firm's clients. "[Senate Finance Committee] Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has stiffened in his support of the provisions, and they won't go away easily."
