House Republicans said they plan to schedule a vote on extending the Bush tax cuts before August.
In a legislative agenda released Friday by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., he wrote, “Before we leave for August, I expect to schedule a vote on legislation preventing the largest tax increase in history,” according to
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last Wednesday in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that she wants to schedule a vote on extending the tax cuts for those who earn less than $1 million and use the extra tax revenue from those earning over $1 million to pay down the deficit.
“Without further delay, the Majority Leadership should schedule a vote on extension of the middle income tax cuts, as early as next week, to increase certainty for millions of American taxpayers and for the economy,” she wrote. “We must ask the very wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. Democrats believe that tax cuts for those earning over a million dollars a year should expire and that we should use the resulting revenues to pay down the deficit… It is unacceptable to hold tax cuts for the middle class hostage to extending multi-billion dollar tax breaks for millionaires, Big Oil, special interests, and corporations that ship jobs overseas.”
The Obama administration position is that the Bush-era tax rates should only be extended for those who earn $250,000 a year or less.
Congress is not expected to settle the matter until after the November election, during a lame-duck session. But there have increasingly been calls for them to settle the fate of the expiring tax cuts in time to provide more certainty for next year. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman and other IRS officials have urged Congress to decide on the tax rates early enough to avoid a delay in the forms and schedules for next tax season.
