In a report last week, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) reminded lawmakers that they had unfinished 2025 business by letting a number of tax provisions expire, not just the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credit (PTC), which is currently causing significant heartburn for both parties.

Other tax provisions that went dark at the end of 2025 include: 

• The work opportunity tax credit (WOTC)
• Seven-year recovery for motorsports entertainment complexes
• Special expensing rules for certain film, television, sound recordings, and live theater 
• Deductibility of employer de minimis meals 
•  Empowerment Zone tax incentives

The drive to reinstate WOTC has bicameral, bipartisan support. Representatives Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA) are working to advance legislation (H.R. 6231) to expand and extend the WOTC through 2030. Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced similar legislation (S. 492) in the Senate. 

Unlike the enhanced PTC, extending the WOTC isn't fraught with polarizing political tensions, which bodes well for its eventual retroactive extension. Efforts to extend the enhanced PTC could even hasten action on the WOTC. The key to extending both is bipartisan support. If a bipartisan compromise emerges on the PTC that can clear both chambers, one plausible scenario is that Congress could add the WOTC and the other non-controversial business-friendly tax extensions listed above. 

At a recent DC Bar Association tax conference, Democratic tax staff laid the groundwork for this possibility by making it clear that cooperative action on business tax relief is contingent on first addressing the PTC. Such a package could even include other tax proposals with bipartisan support, such as the United States-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act. #TaxTake

Upcoming Speaking Engagements and Events 

Rocco will speak at PLI's International Tax Issues 2026 conference on January 27.

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