- Description of the Chairman’s Mark of the "Tax Relief Act of 2005" (JCX-71-05) (Nov. 8, 2005) (149 pages):
The Senate Committee on Finance has scheduled a markup on November 10, 2005, of the “Tax Relief Act of 2005,” which provides for reconciliation pursuant to section 202(b) of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2006. This document, prepared by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, provides a description of the Chairman’s Mark of the “Tax Relief Act of 2005.”
- Estimated Revenue Effects of the Chairman’s Mark of the "Tax Relief Act of 2005" (JCX-72-05) (Nov. 8, 2005)
Finance Committee Staff Summary of the Tax Relief Act of 2005 (Nov. 8, 2005) (12 pages):
- I. Hurricane Tax Relief
- II. Expiring Tax Provisions
- III. Revenue Offsets
Press Reports:
- Bloomberg (Ryan J. Donmoyer): Grassley Proposes Longer Dividend Tax Cut:
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley proposed extending lower taxes on dividends and capital gains until 2010 and limiting the alternative minimum tax as part of an $81.4 billion tax-cut measure his panel will debate this week.
The measure, which contains $7.6 billion in tax breaks aimed at helping survivors of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma rebuild their communities, also extends other temporary tax breaks for businesses, such as a research credit worth almost $5 billion annually for companies such as Microsoft Corp., Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Boeing Co.
"These tax breaks are a no-brainer to me," Grassley said at a breakfast meeting of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington today. "If we let these provisions lapse, we’d be raising taxes on a significant number of taxpayers."
Grassley’s proposal, which will likely be revised before the finance panel considers it Nov. 10, faces skepticism. Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and even some Republicans such as Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, have expressed concern about cutting taxes further, citing rising costs for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast region.
The finance committee’s vote is critical because if the measure is approved by the panel it will be protected from delaying tactics such as filibusters when it is debated on the floor. Those rules, which allow the measure to be passed with a simple majority vote in the 100-member Senate, were part of a budget agreement approved earlier in the year.
