Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) August 13 released three reports containing summaries of the work conducted by bipartisan taskforces that examined temporary tax provisions that expired, or will expire, between December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2019.

On May 16, Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Wyden established task forces to determine whether the need for such provisions continues and possible solutions that would provide long-term certainty, which may include: elimination; a phase-out; extension without reform, either for the long or short term; and permanency. The task forces focused on the issue areas of: workforce and community development; energy; business cost recovery; health tax policies; individual, excise and other temporary policies; and disaster relief.

The released reports cover energy, business cost recovery, and individual, excise and other temporary policies.

"I'm grateful for the hard work of my colleagues and for the input we received from individuals, businesses and industries across the country that represent millions of American jobs. Their thorough and bipartisan approach will form the foundation of the committee's work to provide more certainty to temporary tax policy," Chairman Grassley said. "The next step will be to put together a legislative package based on the proposals that the taskforces received, the areas of consensus among the taskforce members and continued bipartisan discussions. Taxpayers deserve predictability and clarity, and they haven't received either for far too long on temporary tax policy. As we work toward that goal, we also shouldn't lose sight of the provisions that expired more than a year and a half ago. That must be a top priority for Congress upon its return in September."

"Tax policy should not be set a year or two at a time. We need to find permanent solutions that provide certainty to families and businesses," Senator Wyden said. "I appreciate the work of my colleagues and their staff to meet with a wide-range of stakeholders over the past several months and explore options for addressing these policy issues."

In February, Senators Grassley and Wyden introduced a bipartisan bill (S. 617) to retroactively extend, through the end of 2019, 26 tax provisions that expired at the end of 2017, plus three that expired in 2018, and to provide disaster tax relief benefits to individuals and businesses affected by major disasters occurring in 2018.

The Committee press release with links to the reports is here.

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