Thursday, October 18, 2007

AS THE CONGRESS TURNS

Today's CCH daily email Tax Newsletter reports that "Rangel Says AMT/Extenders Bill Now; Broader Tax Reform Legislation in 2008”.

According to the article, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Rangel told reporters yesterday “to expect the introduction of two separate tax bills during the week of October 22”. One bill would extend a group of popular business and individual tax breaks, among them the “big three” – the above-the-line adjustment to income for educator expenses and tuition and fees and the option to deduct state and local sales tax instead of state and local income tax. This bill would also include another one-year AMT fix. Rangel expects this bill will reach the House floor before the mid-November adjournment.
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The second bill is Rangel’s "mother of all reform" bills that would totally eliminate the AMT (hurray!) and cut taxes for about 90 million Americans, lower corporate tax rates and close many business tax loopholes. Rangel expects to see this bill on the House floor sometime in 2008.
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I expect the “extenders” bill will easily pass both House and Senate – but the “mother of all reform” will be another story.

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