ADVOCACY
All eyes on the General Assembly Tax conformity was again the most pressing issue facing the VSCPA this legislative session, and signed into law Feb. 17, 2020.
Tax conformity was No. 1 this year! SB 582 for fixed-date conformity was the first bill signed into law by Gov. Ralph Northam during this legislative session.
FIXED-DATE CONFORMITY SB 582 and its House companion (HB 1413) advance Virginia’s date of conformity to Dec. 31, 2019, and conform to the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 (the federal extenders bill) with the exception of the temporary reduction in the medical expense deduction threshold, from which Virginia will deconform. Virginia will conform with disaster relief, as well as the repeal of the unrelated business tax (UBIT) on certain fringe benefits. The bills also conform to the Virginia Beach Strong Act, which allows cash contributions made on or after May 31, 2019, for the benefit of the families of the dead or wounded victims of the Virginia Beach mass shooting, to be treated as tax deductible contributions.
ROLLING TAX CONFORMITY Our rolling tax conformity bill (HB 734) overwhelmingly passed out of the House went to the Senate for consideration. The Senate
12
DISCLOSURES
•
MARCH/APRIL 2020
chose not to take up the measure, instead referring it for further study. We would like to thank all the members who took time to contact their legislators or send emails to help the conformity effort. By urging your legislators to consider this important legislation, you are actively helping to lift tax conformity burdens in future years. We plan on continuing to advocate for rolling conformity next year. See the message from CEO Stephanie Peters on page 4 for more on the issue. Conformity isn’t the only legislation our advocacy team is working on and tracking. Several other bills important to the profession are moving through the General Assembly and have created opportunities for members to be directly engaged in our efforts: HB 1417: We support this legislation to enable Virginia to align with the new U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) partnership audit regime and streamline administration. The bill establishes more uniform standards for reporting federal audit adjustments to the Commonwealth for effected taxpayers. This legislation will preserve revenues by enabling Virginia to collect its share of liabilities flowing from an IRS partnership audit and not face substantial legal and administrative concerns. The bill provides
