Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

Despite a veto threat and the likelihood that Senate lawmakers will not accept their extenders tax bill, the House on May 21 voted 263 to 160 to pass the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Bill of 2008 (HR 6049). GOP lawmakers rejected the $50 billion tax bill, noting that it failed to address the alternative minimum tax (AMT) and provided tax breaks to trial lawyers. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., said that the measure would provide vital tax relief to families and businesses. He added that the House should not be bound by the actions of dozens of senators who have promised to vote against the House bill.
"Tax relief provided in this bill includes the research and development credit to help American businesses remain competitive, as well as deductions for state and local sales tax, real property tax for non-itemizers, tuition expenses and out-of-pocket expenses for teachers," Rangel said. HR 6049
would also expand the refundable child tax credit to help more than 13 million children and their families, he explained.
Committee member Wally Herger, R-Calif., said House Democrats refused to work on these issues on a bipartisan basis. "Their tax increase approach has been tried and tried again and, from what we've seen in the other body, and from what the White House has said, it will fail again," he stated. "The longer we delay passing a realistic extenders bill, the longer American employers and taxpayers go without this critical tax relief."
Veto Threat
White House advisors have recommended that President Bush veto the extenders bill in its current form. The administration supports several of the tax-cut proposals in the measure, but objects to the proposed tax offsets to pay for them.
The administration, in a written policy statement on May 21, also faulted lawmakers for not including an AMT relief provision in the bill. Delaying enactment of an AMT patch would repeat the problems experienced in 2007, placing an administrative burden on the IRS and keeping more than 13 million taxpayers from being able to file their returns and seek potential refunds at the beginning of the tax filing season, administration officials noted.
By Stephen K. Cooper and Paula Cruickshank, CCH News Staff
Ways and Means Release: House Extends Bipartisan Tax Relief to Families and Businesses
Statement of Administration Policy on HR 6049-Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008
JCT Estimated Revenue Effects of HR 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, JCX-46-08.