Various industry groups and issuers from around the country have re-submitted comments applauding Treasury for including the proposed political subdivision regulations among those on the chopping block, following the President’s Executive Order 13789 to eliminate burdensome tax regulations. Not surprisingly, the style of most of those submissions has been simple and thematically consistent: “Good Job. Keep Going.”
There appears to be no appetite, though, for telling Treasury that it should have included the new issue price regulations as a “significant” regulatory project that deserved a second look. You’ll recall that Treasury did not even examine the new issue price regulations to see whether they meet the President’s criteria in the Executive Order. (In other words, the issue price regulations didn’t just escape the executioner’s blade; they were never captured.) Instead, everyone seems to be of the view that it’s better to live with the “devil that we know” rather than staring into the abyss of what might be proposed and adopted next.[1]
The Public Finance Tax Blog
By Johnny Hutchinson on August 3, 2017
Squire Patton Boggs