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AED Submits Tax Reform Comments to the Senate Finance Committee

Dear AED Member:

On July 17, AED submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee in response to its request for input on reforming the tax code. AED’s submission focuses on several key priorities and the association’s long-standing tax reform principles, including:

• Ensuring tax reform benefits (including rate reductions) all business structures, not just C corporations;
• Incentivizing capital investment by maintaining the deductibility of business interest and preserving Sec. 1031 of the tax code (relating to like-kind exchanges);
• Clarifying that equipment dealers’ rental income isn’t considered passive and subject to the Affordable Care Act’s 3.8 percent investment income tax;
• Rejecting efforts to repeal the “last in, first out” (LIFO) accounting method;
• Repealing the federal estate tax; and
• Identifying new revenue sources for the Highway Trust Fund.

“AED continues to engage members of the House and the Senate on both sides of the aisle to ensure that the construction equipment industry’s voice is heard as the tax reform process continues,” said AED President & CEO Brian P. McGuire. “AED urges Congress to seize on the once-in-a-generation opportunity to make sweeping changes that simplify and restore long-term certainty to the nation’s tax code while unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit of the nation’s small businesses. We look forward to working with Congress and the administration ensure AED members are no longer hindered by a complicated and burdensome tax code.”

For more information about tax reform or AED’s government affairs program, contact AED’s Vice President of Government Affairs Daniel B. Fisher.