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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) October 13 pushed back on assertions from CNN's Wolf Blitzer and some Democrats that she should agree to the Administration's latest $1.8 trillion offer on coronavirus relief/stimulus to deliver benefits to Americans immediately. "I hope you'll ask the same question of the Republicans about why they don't really want to meet the needs of the American people. … So when you say to me, why don't you accept theirs? Why don't they accept ours?" Speaker Pelosi said. She said, "I don't know why you're always an apologist. And many of your colleagues, apologists for the Republican position."

Told to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good and asked what is wrong with $1.8 trillion, Speaker Pelosi said, "do you have any idea what the difference is between the spending that they have in their bill and that we have in our bill? Do you realize that they have come back and said all these things for child tax credits and earned income tax credits are helping people who have lost their jobs are eliminated in their bill?" She told Blitzer, "With all due respect, and you know we've known each other a long time, you really don't know what you're talking about."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in Kentucky the targeted relief bill with new funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that is to be brought up for a vote when the full Senate returns on October 19 would cost around $500 billion, would also address school funding and liability protection, and will resemble the targeted bill blocked in the Senate by Democrats September 10. "We're going to try one more time," Senator McConnell said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, which also reported Speaker Pelosi as telling her members, "We really need to have an agreement, but we cannot have an agreement by just folding."

House Democrats passed a version 2.0 of their HEROES Act earlier this month and now Senate Republicans appear poised to put a second version of their targeted bill up for a vote, though neither action is seen as contributing toward the elusive bipartisan deal, which is being negotiated between the Administration and Speaker Pelosi with the question of the Senate Republican reaction in the background.

President Trump tweeted October 13: "STIMULUS! Go big or go home!!!"

The President was in Pennsylvania October 13 and appealed to suburban women voters as well as saying Democratic presidential nominee and former VP Joe Biden is "a servant of the radical globalists" who "shipped away your jobs, shut down your factories and, you know it because you really suffered right in this area, threw open your borders and ravaged our cities," according to the New York Times. The White House (not the President) tweeted: "During the expansion period of the previous Administration, 9,000 Pennsylvania manufacturing jobs were LOST. Under President @realDonaldTrump, prior to the global pandemic, nearly 17,000 manufacturing jobs were CREATED in PA!"

In Florida October 13, Biden said, "Despite the crises we face, we have an enormous opportunity to build back better, to get everyone a fair return on their work, and an equal chance to get ahead." His Build Back Better plan includes provisions aimed at rejuvenating domestic manufacturing and penalizing offshoring.

A Washington Post story headlined "Biden and Trump step up their fight for older voters" said, "At a senior center in Florida a day after Trump visited the state, Biden argued that Trump has turned his back on older Americans, citing the president's widely criticized response to the novel coronavirus, his attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and his approach to Social Security and Medicare." And, President "Trump is hardly conceding the group to the Democratic nominee. His campaign Tuesday debuted a television commercial seeking to make the case that the president is a stronger advocate for seniors' interests. The ad suggests that the 'far-left health-care plan' embraced by Biden and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) could threaten private insurance."

Tax

Politico Morning Tax considers how Biden would approach the OECD BEPS 2.0 project if he wins the presidency, noting: "Experts watching closely also believe that Biden's ideas for the 2017 tax law's levy on Global Low-Taxed Intangible Income — including hiking the rate and using a country-by-country basis — could mesh with how the OECD is hashing out a global minimum tax."

See EY Alert, "OECD's Inclusive Framework releases BEPS 2.0 documents and agrees to continue work with target of conclusion by mid-2021".

The October 13 House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing on "Taxpayer Fairness" focused on Democratic efforts to obtain President Trump's tax returns and suggestions from New York Times reports that he benefited from policies not available to average Americans. Chairman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) said, "I'm from North Jersey. We have teachers, police officers, firefighters, ambulance techs, and school bus drivers that pay more in taxes! How do they feel when they see their leader pays less than them? A tax system that lets a supposed billionaire pay less than teachers, secretaries and custodians is broken. That is why we are holding today's hearing."

Ranking member Mike Kelly (R-PA) said "Democrats continue their relentless effort to weaponize the tax code for purely political purposes. Democrats have sought to publicize the President's tax returns since day one of his presidency — despite no evidence that he did anything wrong. … The Times does not allege any illegal behavior by the President."

Treasury and IRS October 13 released final regulations (TD 9927) implementing changes under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and CARES Act to IRC Section 172, which governs the carryover and carryback of consolidated net operating losses (CNOLs). The amended regulations under IRC Section 1502 affect affiliated groups of corporations that join in filing (or that are required to join in filing) a consolidated return. The final regulations implement the changes to IRC Section 172 as they apply to consolidated groups by:

• Describing how to determine the 80% limitation on NOL usage for a "mixed" group (a consolidated group containing nonlife insurance companies and other members)
• Addressing the calculation and allocation of farming losses
• Implementing the 80% limitation to determine the CNOL deduction attributable to losses from a member arising during periods in which that member was not part of that group

The final regulations generally adopt, with few significant changes, proposed regulations published in July 2020 (temporary regulations published in July 2020, addressing "split waiver" elections, will be addressed as part of another package).

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