IPX1031® continues to seize opportunities to educate and clarify facts about 1031 Exchanges.
Last week, IPX1031® President, John Wunderlich and General Counsel, Suzanne Goldstein Baker, attended an event in Wisconsin and listened to Rep. Paul Ryan, likely to be the next Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, reiterate his desire for tax reform to bring down the corporate tax rate. While there, they spoke with Rep. Sean Duffy about two issues, 1) the economic stimulus effect of like-kind exchanges on agricultural communities, and 2) the unintended negative impact of the new banking liquidity rules that will increase the cost of doing business for Qualified Intermediaries, title companies, and their clients.
In other news, the Center for American Progress (“CAP”), a Washington, DC based think tank that promotes progressive ideas and political action, published “The Growing Consensus to Improve Our Tax Code” report in late September. The report includes 20 proposals which the authors suggested would improve the tax code and raise $1.4 trillion over the next ten years. Repeal of I.R.C. §1031 Like-Kind Exchanges is among these proposals. [Read the full report here]
Our industry association, the Federation of Exchange Accommodators (FEA), was quick to send a response to the CAP. In the response, we agreed with CAP’s goal of making the “tax code work better for everyone – not just the wealthy and well connected,” but informed CAP that repeal or limitation of §1031 will not further these goals. We pointed out that the reasons cited in the CAP report justifying repeal of §1031 are based on myths or are misstatements of the legislative history of §1031 and set out the straight facts. [Read the full response here]
With all of the misinformation floating around, it is critically important that we make our legislators aware of the truth about how §1031 benefits taxpayers of all sizes, and how fundamentally fair and sensible the tax policy behind §1031 is. If you haven’t sent a letter to your legislators yet, please click here to do so now.
