FY18 Budget Resolution Passes Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Family Business Coalition was pleased to see the passage of the FY18 budget resolution, S.Con.Res.25. The 51-49 vote is a critical first step on the long road to tax reform that will benefit individual Americans and businesses large and small.

With nearly every Democrat presumably voting against the President’s tax reform plan, the only viable path to success is through budget reconciliation. Earlier today, FBC President Palmer Schoening explained, “FBC believes that the Congressional Committees of jurisdiction will play a pivotal role in crafting the best possible tax reform bill. Unfortunately, success also hinges on avoiding an inevitable Democrat filibuster in the Senate that would require 60 votes to defeat. The passage of the FY18 budget resolution unlocks a legislative avenue where both regular order and a 50-vote threshold are possible.”

As the voice for small, family owned and operated businesses, FBC recognizes that the passage of S.Con.Res.25 was the last chance to bring perminant relief to ratepayers across the country this year. One integral component of tax reform is the elimination of the broadly unpopular death tax. Last year the Tax Foundation outlined how the death tax repeal would create nearly 160,000 jobs over the next ten years and raise the income of a family of four making $80,000 by $640 and an individual making $35,000 by $280. Last month, a group of 150 business associations, small businesses, and advocacy organizations joined the Family Business Coalition in sending a letter to Congress urging the repeal of the death tax.

Congress and the Administration have a unique opportunity to significantly improve the lives of Americans by increasing wages, reducing tax complexity, creating a simple and fair tax code, and killing the death tax.  With the passage of the FY18 budget resolution, entrepreneurs are now one step closer to transformative tax reform that reinvigorates main street businesses across the country.