George Hani commented on President Trump's February 24 executive order on regulatory reform and its potential impact on tax regulations. "I think everyone would embrace eliminating outdated and unnecessary regulations," Hani said, but reviewing tax regulations may be less consequential for tax rules than for other agencies, largely because of the idea that any excessive costs or burdens are not created by regulations, but by the code. Depending on the application of the review, some regulations could receive extra scrutiny, but it is not clear which regulations those could be. "I don't know if this would extend to something like Schedule UTP," Hani said. "I imagine there are some other provisions that expired in the mid-'80s, but no one bothered to get rid of. Removing those is a worthwhile exercise, but nothing anyone would get worked up about." The waiver provision in the executive order may allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury to use to seek exemption for regulations. "[A waiver] could have some benefits as a conceptual matter, but at the end of the day, how worthwhile would it be for tax regs?" Hani asked. At present, the IRS and Treasury appear to be in a holding pattern in releasing tax guidance. "The sooner we get out of that holding pattern, the better," he said.