The AICPA this week asked WICPA President & CEO Tammy Hofstede to provide local input for a national press release that opposes a significant aspect of a budget bill heading to the Senate.
The legislative package, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” would eliminate the state and local taxes (SALT) deduction for pass-through entities (PTEs) used by specified service trades and businesses (SSTBs), including accountants, doctors, nurses and other professionals across the country.
“There are thousands of Wisconsin businesses that rely on the PTET to benefit from an otherwise limited deduction,” Hofstede says in the press release. “Eliminating the opportunity to take this deduction would lead to higher tax liabilities, harming not only those businesses, but also the clients and customers those businesses serve and, ultimately, Wisconsin’s economy.”
Earlier this month, the WICPA — and 52 other CPA societies — backed the AICPA’s PTET SALT deduction effort in a letter addressed to leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, urging all pass-through entities to retain the ability to deduct state and local taxes at the entity level.
The WICPA continues to urge its members and all accounting professionals in Wisconsin who will be impacted by this legislation to contact our senators, Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson, by today, June 13, urging them to preserve the existing PTET SALT deductions for all businesses.
Learn more about the PTET SALT deductions in this PDF document. When you contact our senators, you’re welcome to use the following message from the AICPA, which the WICPA supports:
I urge you to oppose provisions included in the reconciliation legislation that unfairly targets the ability of service businesses structured as pass-through entities to deduct their state and local taxes (SALT) from their federal income while providing no such limit to other businesses. This legislation effectively discriminates against particular pass-through businesses by indirectly raising taxes on those entities that are considered the backbone of the American economy. These provisions greatly widen the disparity in treatment between pass-through entities and other kinds of businesses, and I strongly urge you to oppose these provisions of the bill.