On December 31, a set of approximately 50 tax-reducing provisions commonly referred to as the “tax extenders” expired. These provisions, which apply to both individuals and businesses, include popular measures such as the Research and Experimentation credit for businesses and the optional deduction for state and local sales taxes for individuals. Congress will need to retroactively extend these tax laws at some point this year; otherwise, a steep tax increase on certain groups of taxpayers will remain in place. Retroactively addressing the tax extenders is nothing new. Congress generally waits …
President Obama repeatedly asked members of Congress to pass the American Jobs Act last week. But when no Democrat filed Obama’s bill after he presented it to Congress, a conservative congressman swiped the name for his own legislation. The American Jobs Act introduced in the House of Representatives looks quite different from the version President Obama outlined in his speech to Congress. Instead of hiking taxes on working Americans to pay for another stimulus, Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) legislation offers a tax cut. UPDATE: Gohmert’s bill now has a number. …
The tax bill (still being drafted in secret) is becoming a lobbyist’s dream, just in time for Christmas. The Democrat opposition to President Obama’s compromise has increased the negotiating power of every Representative and Senator, especially the Democrats. The vote by the House Democrat Caucus to denounce the unwritten bill “in its current form” is a negotiating ploy; it gives them leverage to bargain for sugar plum pork. Now they’re the ones holding the bill hostage.
Congress will take up debate on the dreaded Death Tax once again in the coming weeks. It will do so because the Death Tax expires for one year starting January 1, 2010. But like the villain in a horror movie, it will rise from the dead with its full power in tact on January 1, 2011. The one-year expiration will likely incite Congressional debate because some would like to keep it from expiring this year all together. The one year abolition of the tax is the end of a years-long …
