News Updates

Nebraskans who have claimed a state income tax credit for property taxes paid in support of their area community college should continue to do so in the coming year.

Over the span of the last four months, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen lobbied energetically for significant property tax relief, with a stated goal of attaining 40% total property tax relief by the end of his second year in office. But when the Legislature completed its special session on Aug. 20, the result was an expanded and revamped program providing only about 3% to 4% more property tax relief, with total relief roughly around 20%, according to Pillen.

During the recent Special Session, the Nebraska Legislature passed LB34, which adopts the Property Tax Growth Limitation Act and the School District Property Tax Relief Act and changes provisions relating to revenue and taxation. The bill was signed by Gov. Jim Pillen on August 20, 2024.

Lawmakers embraced the ‘absolute minimum’ LB 34 and said farewell to the class of senators elected in 2016, who led the charge to continue working.

Senators said goodbye to the 108th Legislature, 1st Special Session, at 2:22 PM on Aug. 20 and there was applause in the Rotunda. At 2:30 PM, Governor Pillen and an invited group of senators held a press conference to claim victory and promise that they would be back for more.

What was intended to be a simple, rare Saturday meeting of the Nebraska Legislature began with flared emotions but ended with key senators making nice to save the very legislation their fight had imperiled.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday it plans to mail up to 30,000 letters to reverse potentially more than $1 billion in incorrect Employee Retention Credit claims. It is sending the letters to underscore its reopening of a voluntary disclosure program for a limited time until Nov. 22, 2024. This will allow businesses to fix improper ERC claims at a 15% discount without penalties or interest.

The Mercatus Center of George Mason University has released its 2024 edition of “Snapshots of State Regulations.” As with most rating systems, this allows states to compare themselves to other states and examine particular strengths and weaknesses in their systems. These strengths and weaknesses explain good and bad rankings and provide focus areas for continued work or improvement.

The Nebraska Legislature started last week with LB34, introduced by Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon, as the new vehicle for Gov. Jim Pillen's property tax relief plan. The bill was advanced from the Revenue Committee on a 6-1 vote with a committee amendment that contained the major portions of LB1, including new taxes and the elimination of certain exemptions for more than 60 products and services. (The provisions to tax accounting services and tax preparation services were removed before the bill even made it out of committee.) Ultimately, the amendment did not have enough votes to advance and they substituted that amendment with AM84, which significantly pared down the bill and ultimately advanced.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has amped up its outreach efforts to update businesses on the requirements for beneficial ownership information (BOI), which requires reports from over 32 million businesses this year.

Two budget-related legislative bills advanced Friday to help offset the cost of Nebraska’s latest core property tax relief plan.

The “absolute minimum” property tax relief plan in the Nebraska Legislature inched closer to passage with small changes Friday, as lawmakers swatted down a proposed “compromise” for counties and municipalities.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Security Summit partners have announced the availability of a new, updated Written Information Security Plan (WISP) designed to help protect tax professionals against continuing threats from identity thieves and data breaches.

How do you go from teaching and testing material in a set time to providing students time (and multiple testing opportunities) to gain 100% understanding of the material? Find out in this Academic Update feature article.

Gov. Pillen has a new property tax relief plan using LB 9, which was introduced by Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward. Although the proposal still includes the taxation of more than 70 goods and services, it does NOT include the taxation of accounting and legal services, advertising, and cloud or data services. Several property tax relief bills are expected to be combined into LB 9 this afternoon.

Today was Day 7 of the special session of the Nebraska Legislature. In all, 81 bills and 24 constitutional amendments have been introduced since Governor Jim Pillen issued a proclamation calling for a special session to address property tax relief. Legislative rules require all bills to be heard in committee hearings within five days of being referenced to a committee. As such, the Revenue Committee will continue hearings on Saturday, August 3, to wrap up a lengthy six days in a row of committee hearings – including a 10-hour hearing on LB 1!

A bill to expand the child tax credit (CTC) and restore some tax breaks for businesses failed to advance in the Senate on Thursday on a 48-44 vote. Republicans largely opposed the measure, arguing they would be in position to get a better deal next year. The $79bn legislation would have expanded CTC eligibility among the lowest-income families and adjusted payments for inflation for the 2024 and 2025 filing years. It also would have bolstered certain business tax credits, including deductions for research and development, interest expenses and investments in equipment, that were limited in an effort to cap the total costs of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut law. Sen. Mike Crapo (RID), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, described the vote as a “blatant attempt to score political points.," adding that Senate Republicans have concerns about the policy, but are willing to negotiate a “child tax credit solution that a majority of Republicans can support.” Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who caucus with Democrats, also voted against the measure. Without action from Congress, the child tax credit, among other individual tax provisions, will revert to 2017 levels after 2025. “Next year, they’ll have a bigger job to do because you have an underlying credit that’s much more expensive to extend,” said Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst and modeling manager at the Tax Foundation.

Severe storms overnight Wednesday that knocked out electricity for more than 240,000 Nebraskans and downed trees and power lines with gusts of wind up to 100 mph spurred Gov. Jim Pillen to issue a state disaster declaration. Pillen declared a disaster Thursday in six counties: Cass, Douglas, Lancaster, Sarpy, Saunders and Washington.

Sen. Linehan says funding for “the ‘needs’ side, though it might need some adjustments, is better than saying, ‘we’ll figure it out later.’”

John Cederberg, CPA of Lincoln presented testimony in regard to the language in Sections 52 and 53 of LB 1. Cederberg submitted a detailed 11-page letter to the Revenue Committee asking the committee to remove the language in LB 1 that would terminate the provision for Nebraska resident shareholders of S corporations, and Nebraska resident members of LLCs, which have active business operations in multiple states to include in their individual Nebraska taxable income only their proportionate share of the S corporation’s or LLC’s Nebraska source taxable income.