Tax Payers Excited To See Bigger Tax Refunds
Most of us were dreading the amount that we would possibly be getting back in our tax return afraid that it would be a small amount – which for most of us would go to paying off what we owed from last year. It seems though that the government might actually be doing us a favor by giving us more back than what we hoped for. Congressional leaders came to a deal with the White House today that said tax filers could be getting an extra $600 - $1200 back.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would act on the agreement — hammered out in a week of intense negotiations with Republican Leader John A. Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — “at the earliest date, so that those rebate checks will be in the mail.”
President Bush praised the agreement in a statement he delivered to reporters at the White House. “This package has the right set of policies and is the right size,” he said.
The rebates, which would go to about 116 million families, had appeal for both Democrats and Republicans. Pelosi’s staff noted that they would include $28 billion in checks to 35 million working families who wouldn’t have been helped by Bush’s original proposal.
Republicans, for their part, were pleased that the bulk of the rebates — more than 70 percent, according to an analysis by Congress’ Joint Tax Committee — would go to individuals who pay taxes. Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child under the agreement. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don’t pay taxes would get $300 rebates.
The rebates, expected to go out in May or June, would cost about $100 billion, aides said. The package also includes close to $50 billion in business tax cuts. The package would allow businesses to immediately write off 50 percent of purchases of plants and other capital equipment and permit small businesses to write off additional purchases of equipment. A Republican-written provision to allow businesses suffering losses now to reclaim taxes previously paid.
“You know, many Americans believe that Washington is broken,” Boehner said. “But I think this agreement and I hope that this agreement will show the American people that we can fix it and will serve to move along other bipartisan agreements that we can have in the future.” Paulson said he would work with the House and Senate to enact the package as soon as possible, because “speed is of the essence.”
The Treasury Department has already been talking to the IRS about getting the checks out “as quickly as possible, recognizing that the tax filing season is ongoing,” said Treasury spokesman Andrew DeSouza. The rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose income exceeds $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, aides said. Individuals with incomes up to $87,000 and couples up to $174,000 would get partial rebates. The caps are higher for those with children.
The agreement left some lawmakers in both parties with a bitter taste, complaining that their leaders had sacrificed too much in the interest of striking a deal. Many senior Democrats were particularly upset that the package omitted the unemployment extension.
“I do not understand, and cannot accept, the resistance of President Bush and Republican leaders to including an extension of unemployment benefits for those who are without work through no fault of their own,” Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., the Ways and Means Committee chairman, said in a statement.
Bush has supported larger rebates of $800-$1,600, but his plan would have left out 30 million working households who earn paychecks but don’t make enough to pay income tax, according to calculations by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. An additional 19 million households would receive only partial rebates under Bush’s initial proposal.