Obama Threatens Veto of Emerging Tax-Break Agreement in Congress

(Bloomberg) President Barack Obama would veto a tax-break agreement being negotiated in Congress by Senate Democrats and House Republicans.

“The president would veto the proposed deal because it would provide permanent tax breaks to help well-connected corporations while neglecting working families,” Jen Friedman, a White House spokeswoman, said in an e-mail today.

Lawmakers are nearing an agreement on extending U.S. tax breaks that lapsed at the end of 2013 and making others permanent. The proposal would add about $450 billion to the budget deficit over the next decade, said a Democratic aide.

A veto would require an override by two-thirds of lawmakers in the House and Senate, a high barrier for a deal that could draw opposition from some Democrats.

The biggest beneficiaries of the breaks would include corporations that conduct research, residents of states such as Washington and Texas that lack an income tax, and wind-energy producers concerned that their tax benefit would end all at once instead of being phased out. Tax breaks for low-income families that lapse at the end of 2017 wouldn’t be extended.

The tax break for corporate research, which would be expanded and made permanent, benefits companies including Intel Corp. and Johnson & Johnson. A benefit for small-business investments also would be locked in.

The plan would make permanent a provision allowing individuals to deduct state sales taxes, an issue important to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. In that state 22 percent of tax filers take advantage of the break, the second- highest percentage in the U.S., according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Wind Energy
The production tax credit for wind energy would be phased out over several years, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the package wasn’t yet public.

A tax break for mass-transit commuters would be permanently extended as would a tax credit for college tuition, the aide said. Those are items championed by Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Senate Democrat.

Other breaks that may be made permanent include incentives for landowners to donate conservation easements and for individuals to make charitable donations directly from tax- advantaged retirement accounts.

Dozens of other tax breaks that expired at the end of 2013 would be continued through 2015. Among those that have lapsed are a provision that lets home sellers exclude from income the forgiven debt from short sales, as well as accelerated depreciation for motorsports tracks.

Child Credit
After reports of an emerging agreement yesterday, the Obama administration issued a statement signaling that it opposed a package that doesn’t extend expansions of the child tax credit and earned income tax credit that lapse at the end of 2017.

“An extender package that makes permanent expiring business provisions without addressing tax credits for working families is the wrong approach, at the expense of middle-class families,” Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said yesterday. “Any deal on tax extenders must ensure that the economic benefits are broadly shared.”

Congress returns on Dec. 1 to finish its post-election session, and lawmakers want to leave Washington by Dec. 11.

That time frame might make it difficult for Obama to veto any plan, especially because the Internal Revenue Service has warned that waiting could delay tax refunds next year.

If this proposal falls apart, House Republicans’ fallback plan is to extend the lapsed breaks through Dec. 31, 2014, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said yesterday.

That approach would require lawmakers to return to the issue next year, when Republicans will control the House and the Senate.

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