U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., says she plans to introduce a bill to protect the deduction for state sales taxes, since Congress has failed to extend the tax break that expired at the end of 2011, according to published reports.
The measure would cost $37.1 billion over 10 years, but Berkley told the Las Vegas Review Journal that she would pay for the bill “by ending taxpayer giveaways to big oil.”
In 2009, 316,038 residents of Nevada claimed $456 million for state and local sales tax deductions on their federal tax returns. The state has no income tax. The benefit amounted to $1,443 per family.
The bill would make the tax deduction, which currently has to be renewed every few years, permanent.
