The US House of Representatives was introduced to the proposed tax reform bill today (HR 1). We have had an opportunity to quickly review the bill since release this morning. As a general observation, this 429 page bill is anything but simplification. While the bill will be marked-up next week and then amended by both the House and the Senate before Conference finalizes a bill for signature, the tone set by this bill is nothing less than a rouse of superficial simplification for added complexity. Over the coming week, we will be providing a section by section review of the bill with a longer term objective of integrating changes into the conversation.

Of particular importance is that this bill has set many of the effective dates as of December 31, 2017 ... time is short to take advantage of any advantages that may only exist until the end of the year.