House Passes AMT Relief, Disaster Relief

On September 24, 2008, the House, by a vote of 393 to 30, passed the Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Bill of 2008 (HR 7005), providing a one-year, inflation-adjusted extension of the AMT exemption amount and a one year extension of AMT relief for nonrefundable personal tax credits. The legislation also provides relief to AMT taxpayers with incentive stock options. The legislation has an estimated ten-year cost of $64.6 billion and is not offset with revenue raisers or spending cuts.

On September 24, 2008, the House, by a vote of 419 to 4, also passed the Disaster Tax Relief Bill of 2008 (HR 7006). The legislation would provide certain Katrina-like tax relief to federally declared disaster areas between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011. The estimated ten-year cost of this legislation is $8 billion and is also not offset with revenue raisers or spending cuts.

Since the House has passed legislation in a different form than that passed in the Senate, it appears unlikely that any tax legislation will be enacted before adjournment for the election other than perhaps the House’s stand-alone AMT relief bill or any tax provisions that make it into the financial bailout legislation currently being negotiated in Congress.