National Mining Association lobbies to preserve tax provision in CARES Act
The National Mining Association has led the way for more than 70 industry associations in a lobbying effort to protect the $160 billion tax provision that was folded into the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March according to emails and a letter seen by Reuters.
The industry associations wrote to Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Republican-led Senate finance committee on taxation and his Democratic counterpart Ron Wyden, raising concerns that “some in Congress are seeking to reverse these changes” and urging the senators to leave them in place.
“The tax and liquidity provisions in the CARES Act are helping to ensure that the severe economic situation created by COVID-19 do not become even worse,” the groups wrote.
While that letter was signed by more than 70 groups representing industries from farming and architects to banks and insurers, it was drafted and organized by the National Mining Association (NMA), according to emails seen by Reuters.
In a statement, an NMA spokeswoman said the group regularly works with dozens of associations across multiple industries and that the tax break was “significant to many who are working to minimize the impacts of the economic downturn and limit job losses.”
The tax measures went largely unnoticed until April when the nonpartisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation finalized its cost estimate of the measures and who would benefit.
The measures would reduce federal tax revenues by $160.5 billion over 10 years, with $135 billion of that due to easing so-called noncorporate loss limitations, the committee said. It also found that the noncorporate provision would overwhelmingly benefit roughly 43,000 people who make more than $1 million a year.
The NMA spokeswoman told Reuters that the association supported the measure’s inclusion in the CARES Act. Senate records show the association lobbied on the legislation.
The CARES tax language eased rules on carrying back net operating losses to give companies and individuals a quick cash injection. It allowed corporations a five-year carryback for net operating losses generated in 2018, 2019, or 2020, and suspended for 2018, 2019, and 2020 a limit on excess business losses for noncorporate taxpayers which had been imposed in 2017.
In its latest stimulus package, the HEROES Act, the Democratic-led House of Representatives has repealed the noncorporate tax breaks and limited the corporate carryback period to 2018 and 2019, according to an analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness. The Senate has yet to move on new stimulus legislation.