The tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee plans to hold votes Thursday on several Republican-sponsored bills that would make five temporary tax breaks into permanent parts of the Tax Code.
H.R. 2940, the Educator Tax Relief Act of 2015, sponsored by Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., would make permanent the above-the-line deduction for classroom expenses of schoolteachers.
H.R. 765, the Restaurant and Retail Jobs and Growth Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., would make permanent the 15-year depreciation schedule for leasehold improvements, restaurant improvements and new construction, and retail improvements.
H.R. 2510, a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify and make permanent bonus depreciation, sponsored by Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, would make 50-percent bonus depreciation permanent.
H.R. 961, a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently extend the subpart F exemption for active financing income, also sponsored by Tiberi, would benefit U.S.-based multinational companies, allowing them to lower their taxes.
H.R. 1430, the Permanent CFC Look-Through Act of 2015, sponsored by Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., would also benefit U.S.-based multinationals that use controlled foreign corporations.
However, an advocacy group known as the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition called on members of Congress on Wednesday to reject the legislation, saying it would cost American taxpayers $100 billion over the next decade and reward multinational companies for artificially shifting profits overseas.
“It’s high time Congress takes a stand against multinational corporations that shift their profits offshore and avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” said Rebecca Wilkins, executive director of the FACT Coalition, which unites over 100 small business, faith-based, human rights, anti-corruption, public-interest, government watchdog, labor, and global development organizations. “When Congress incentivizes multinational corporations to continue avoiding their taxes by manipulating their tax bills, small businesses and average American taxpayers have to pick up the tab in the form of cuts to public programs, higher taxes and bigger government deficits.”
