Independent Banker - December 2017 - 24

Grassroots
Voice on the Hill-On March 28, ICBA chairman
and ValueBank Texas president and CEO Scott Heitkamp
testified before the House Committee on Financial
Services' Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and
Consumer Credit on the state of bank lending in America.
still looking to pass a tax bill by their
end-of-the-year deadline.
The congressional plan would
reduce the corporate tax rate to 20
percent, cut the rate for pass-through
entities (including S corporations) to
25 percent, limit the deduction for
net business expenses incurred by C
corporations, and allow businesses to
write off the cost of new investments
in the year they are made. Among
changes to the individual tax code,
the plan would double the standard
deduction, simplify the rate structure,
retain tax incentives for home
Fine day at the
White House
ICBA president and CEO Cam Fine attended President
Donald Trump's signing of a law vacating the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau's rule restricting consumer
arbitration agreements. " Arbitration is a well-established and
tested process that off ers better results for consumers and helps avoid
frivolous class-action suits..., " Fine said in a statement. " ICBA thanks the
president for swiftly signing this measure into law, because it preserves community
banks' contractual right to pursue fair and timely resolution through
arbitration and avoid prohibitively expensive and protracted litigation. "
24 ICBA Independent Banker December 2017
mortgage interest and charitable
donations, and repeal the estate tax
and alternative minimum tax.
Throughout the debate, ICBA has
been encouraged by policymakers'
commitment to growth-oriented
reforms while at the same time
emphasizing that the plan should
adhere to the priorities laid out in
the ICBA Principles for Tax Reform
white paper released in August.
ICBA has been particularly focused
on preserving the business interest
deduction, strengthening the passthrough
model for Subchapter S
institutions, lowering marginal tax
rates for both C and S corporations,
repealing the estate tax, preventing
new taxes targeting commercial
banks or their customers, and promoting
tax parity among all fi nancial
services providers, including taxsubsidized
credit unions and Farm
Credit System entities. These and
other ICBA principles are essential
to strengthening the community
bank-small business partnership and
thereby enhancing local economic
growth and prosperity.
In fact, ICBA has led grassroots
outreach to ensure the proposed
maximum 25 percent pass-through
tax rate is available to the nation's
more than 2,000 community banks
organized under Subchapter S of the
tax code. As lawmakers began codifying
their tax reform
framework
into legislative language, ICBA
and S-corp community bankers
responded in force to avoid anticompetitive
tax disparities.
ICBA thanks all those who have
responded to its calls to reach out
to members of Congress on behalf
of the industry's tax reform priorities.
Policymakers are engaged in a
complex and ambitious initiative-
updating the tax code for the fi rst
time since Ronald Reagan signed
the last major reform into law in
1986. Done right, modernizing and
simplifying the tax code can provide
needed relief to community banks,
strengthening local communities,
economic growth and job creation.
Regulatory relief
While Congress works to fi nalize tax
reform by its self-imposed deadline, it
is also off to a strong start in advancing
community bank regulatory relief.
Congress and the Trump administration
made a down payment on
relief with the passage in October of
a resolution overturning the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau's
rule prohibiting consumer arbitration
agreements. ICBA strongly
opposed the CFPB rule and worked
with Senate Banking Committee
chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to
advance a legislative fi x. In a comment
letter in 2016, ICBA noted that
the bureau's own research indicates
that arbitration offers a better process
and outcomes for consumers
than class actions. The successful
vote followed a months-long
ICBA grassroots campaign
that generated nearly 2,000
community banker letters to
members of Congress.
Meanwhile, ICBA's Plan
for Prosperity regulatory relief
platform continues moving ahead
through numerous channels. Following
meetings with President Donald
Trump and Treasury secretary
Steven Mnuchin at the beginning of
2017, including a gathering of more
than 100 community bankers at the
White House as part of the ICBA
Independent Banker - December 2017

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