WASHINGTON — The House Ways and Means Committee will begin in April to consider which tax provisions that expired at the end of last year should be made permanent.
In a memo to committee members, chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich, said that starting in April, the committee will go "policy by policy" to figure out which tax extenders should become permanent and will hold hearings and votes as part of that process.
"One important goal of tax reform is to provide certainty to American taxpayers," Camp said. "I think we can all agree that a short extension of tax policies is no way to legislate and is even worse for the families and businesses who utilize those tax benefits."
Camp said he intends to "begin advancing permanent legislation through the committee that paves the way for tax reform by making incremental progress towards full reform."
The extenders, which expired at the end of last year, include the authorization of a national volume cap for qualified zone academy bonds, the deduction for state and local sales taxes, the deduction allowable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico and the increased level of distilled spirit excise tax payments into the treasuries of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., plans to have his committee vote early next month on an extenders package.
Camp released his draft legislation on comprehensive tax reform in February which, among other things, would impose a 10% surtax on municipal bond interest for the wealthy and repeal the tax exemption for qualified private-activity bonds and advance refunding bonds issued after 2014. He told members of his committee that he intends to hold more bipartisan meetings with the Joint Committee on Taxation staff about the draft and that he plans to hold public hearings on specific parts of the plan.
Bill Daly, director of governmental affairs for the National Association of Bond Lawyers, said that the hearings could be significant for the municipal bond market, depending on what sections of the draft legislation they cover.
