Business lobby makes push for expired tax breaks
By Bernie Becker- 11/18/14 10:38 AM EST writing for
The Hill
A wide range of business interests
urged Congress to revive dozens of expired tax breaks before lawmakers break
for the year. More than 500 groups — representing,
as Dorothy Coleman of the National Association of Manufacturers called it, “the
entire U.S. economy” — said that allowing the tax breaks to stay expired would
amount to a tax increase on American businesses at a time when many around the
country feel skipped over by the economic recovery. Failing to extend the tax breaks,
the businesses and business groups said, would “inject instability and uncertainty
into the economy and weaken confidence in the employment marketplace.” “Acting promptly on this matter in
lame-duck will provide important predictability necessary for economic growth,”
they added in separate letters to both House and Senate members.
On a conference call with reporters,
the business groups specifically pushed for Congress to extend the popular
credit for business research, incentives for business expensing, a deduction
for state and local sales taxes, and tax breaks for charitable giving. Top tax writers in the House and the
Senate are seeking to hammer out a package to restore the tax breaks, commonly
known as extenders, before the end of the year.
The Senate Finance Committee cleared
a package earlier this year that would extend dozens of tax breaks through
2015. But in the House, Ways and Means
Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and other Republicans are seeking to indefinitely
extend some business incentives, like the credit for research and development.
Some House Republicans also want to kill some incentives, like a credit for
wind energy favored by many Democrats, and have floated either extending the
tax breaks only through the end of this year or pushing the issue into the next
Congress.
The business groups generally
declined to weigh in on how long the tax breaks should be extended. “We’re not
telling them how to do it,” Coleman told reporters. But Alan Baratz of Alert GPS in
Scottsdale, Ariz., also urged lawmakers to pass a multi-year extension of the
research credit. The groups also noted that John Koskinen, the IRS
commissioner, has said that the agency might be forced to delay the upcoming
tax filing season if an extenders package isn’t wrapped up quickly. “A delay in the tax filing season
will delay tax refund checks and spending decisions, resulting in an immediate
negative impact on the economy,” the groups wrote.
