This week the U.S. House passed the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 which extends to the end of 2014 tax provisions that expired at the end of last year.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, passed 378-46 with 20 Democrats and 26 Republicans opposing the bill. Most members of the Florida delegation backed the bill though U.S. Rep. Curt Clawson, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., voted against it.
While the bill will ensure the federal government takes in less than $45 billion in new revenue over the next decade, it enacts a $400 million national volume cap for qualified zone academy bonds (QZABs) in 2014, extends deductions for state and local sales taxes for Americans who live in states and cities without income taxes, extends empowerment zones incentives and continues the temporary high limit on rum tax payments to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The bill also extends alternative energy credits including the wind production tax credit (PTC) and biodiesal incentives.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., part of the Republican leadership as senior deputy majority whip and a member of the House Committee of Financial Services, praised the bill as important for individuals and businesses in Florida.
If the tax extenders package did not pass, millions of families and businesses in Florida would experience sharp and unexpected tax increases, Ross said on Thursday. This legislation will extend 55 tax provisions including one that helps small businesses utilize research and development opportunities. Another will provide teachers the opportunity to file for a deduction for supplies they purchased with their own funds to help their students in the classroom.
But labeling the bill a retroactive tax extenders package, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said he had problems with it, even as he voted to support it. Deutch and other Democrats have been pushing a two-year extension.
"From day one, the 113th Congress has been mired in dysfunction, and theres no better example than todays passage of a bill that restores tax provisions that expired a year ago, only to have them expire again on Jan. 1, 2015, Deutch said on Wednesday night. "The passage of this retroactive tax extenders package will bring a sigh of relief to many businesses and families who rely on these provisions to file their taxes and make financial plans, but the sad reality is that with the new year will come a new wave of uncertainty inflicted by a Congress that continues to cater to extremists and govern exclusively by crisis.
"Indeed, many of my colleagues who preach fiscal responsibility and rail against uncertainty have spent this entire year advancing radical proposals to permanently extend a trillion dollars worth of tax breaks for corporate special interests while excluding measures critical for working families and small businesses, like mortgage debt forgiveness and portions of the Child Tax Credit, Deutch added. "Failing to pass todays retroactive fix would have wreaked havoc on millions of Americans filing their income taxes for 2014. Yet avoiding disaster and actually moving this country forward are two very different things. It is my hope that next Congress, Republican leaders will encourage rather than demonize bipartisan cooperation, so that members of both parties can work together on reforms that simplify our tax code, incentivize innovation, and give working families a real shot in todays economy."
Some conservative groups, including Americans for Prosperity, lined up against the proposal due to it extending the wind PTC.
American taxpayers deserve energy solutions that are affordable, reliable, and can make it on their own in the market. In this flat economic recovery, handouts to special interests need to stop, said Mac Zimmerman, AFPs director of policy, when the group came out against the proposal last month. Taxpayers are tired of being asked to indefinitely fund corporate welfare for the Obama administrations favored industries.
The bills fate in the Senate is uncertain. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has said he would prefer the extensions to run until the end of 2015. President Barack Obama has signaled he could veto the bill that passed the House.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
