Tax Group News
February 21, 2008 
Paul Varner 
Link To This Post
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) took the oath of office to begin his second four-year term on January 15. In Governor Barbour's state of the state address, which was delivered on January 21, he announced the appointment of a commission to conduct a comprehensive study of Mississippi's tax system, including how the combined federal and local tax structures affect Mississippi citizens and businesses.
The public-private commission will be chaired by Leland S. Speed, one of the state's long-time business leaders and the former Director of the Mississippi Development Authority. The 37 other members of the Commission come from business, legal, academic and legislative backgrounds. The members of the Commission include the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer and the Chair of the State Tax Commission. Governor Barbour asked the commission to provide a report on its findings by August 31, 2008.
Because of the appointment of this tax study commission, most observers do not expect any significant changes in the state’s tax laws to be enacted during the 2008 Regular Session of the Mississippi legislature, which commenced on January 8. In one of the first actions of the 2008 Regular Session, the legislature passed a bill to shorten the 2008 Regular Session from 125 days to 103 days.
February 18, 2008 Gilbert Van Loon Link To This Post
When the IRS extended the deadline late last year for bringing nonqualified deferred compensation arrangments into compliance with Section 409A, they emphasized that there would be no further extensions and that December 31, 2008 would be the absoute deadline. More recently, the principal author of the IRS regulations in this area, speaking to a practitioner group and a recent seminar, has reiterated that theme, incidating that the IRS was not working on any guidance projects currently that would affect the amendment process. His admonition to sponsors and practitioners was to get to work to make their documents compliant. He also said that there is little hope of any type of IRS program to obtain approval of nonqualified deferred compensation documents in the near future and that the IRS had limited resources to develop any type of correction program. The clear message is that plan sponsors and practitioners need to get it right the first time or risk the draconian penalties that come with a violation of Section 409A. For prior coverage of Section 409A, see newsletter 01 and newsletter 02.
February 21, 2008
