Leaders of the Senate Finance Committee plan to markup long-awaited legislation to extend a long set of expired and soon-to-expire temporary tax breaks.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Tuesday the committee would markup legislation on the set of provisions, traditionally known as “tax extenders,” that have expired or will expire at the end of this year. The markup of the bill, entitled the Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency (EXPIRE) Act, will take place on Thursday.
“This bipartisan extenders package is the product of a Finance Committee that came together to provide needed certainty to the economy, protect jobs and maintain important priorities for working families,” Wyden said in a statement. “With that said, I am determined this will be the last extenders bill on my watch. It’s high time we focus on creating a new, 21st-century tax code, because the status quo is unacceptable.”
Wyden recently took over chairmanship of the committee from Max Baucus, who became ambassador to China.
The package includes provisions that would benefit individuals, families, and small businesses, incentivize innovative research and development, and promote alternative and renewable energy initiatives, among others. They include the research tax credit, the election to deduct state and local income taxes, along with tax breaks for schoolteachers who buy school supplies and a host of others.
“For far too long Washington has acted to extend long-standing tax policy, rarely shining a spotlight on the individual provisions or their impact on the families and businesses that benefit from them. Such dysfunction must come to an end,” said Hatch. “This pared-back bill demonstrates to the American people that Congress can and will make the tough decisions needed to help clean up our broken tax code. It’s imperative to allow the committee to work its will and a markup will provide members with ample opportunity to thoroughly examine these provisions.”
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Separately, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., announced Tuesday that his committee would hold a hearing next Tuesday, April 8, on the expired business tax provisions in the tax reform draft proposal he released in February. “One major goal of tax reform is to provide stable, predictable rules for businesses so that they can grow, create jobs, and increase wages,” he said in a statement. “Congress must end the practice of short-term tax policy, extending important business tax provisions for one or two years at a time makes it very difficult for employers to plan and adds immense confusion and complexity for taxpayers. The long-standing tax provisions that help businesses grow the economy and create jobs should be made permanent once and for all.”
