[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 28 (Thursday, March 6, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H781-H782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IT IS TIME TO PASS TAX RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pappas] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAPPAS. As the old saying goes, Mr. Speaker, there are two 
certainties in life: death and taxes. While we can only die once, every 
year Americans

[[Page H782]]

are working harder and longer to pay their taxes. For many Americans 
the current tax system is in effect a death sentence.
  Who among us thinks that we are undertaxed? How many of us think that 
we should be paying more of our hard-earned tax dollars to the Federal 
Government? We are taxed on every dime we make, every purchase we make, 
every phone call we place, every gallon of gas we pump, every home we 
sell. We are even taxed when we die. The people of central New Jersey 
have told me that they are tired of paying more and more each year. 
They have told me to go to Washington and work for real tax relief.
  Mr. Speaker, the time that is spent to pay the tax bill is time that 
could be better spent. It is time that a mother or father could be 
spending with their child. It is a time that a small business man or 
woman could be drumming up new customers. Imagine that you found a new 
job where you were told to come to work at 9 in the morning but you 
would not start getting paid until 11:45. Would you want that job? Yet 
that is the part of every day that every average American worker spends 
to pay their taxes. It was not until May 7 last year that the average 
American worker was able to stop working for Uncle Sam.
  I have made it a top priority of mine to help ease the burden of 
taxes on the individuals, families and businesses of this country. On 
my first day as a Member of Congress, I introduced legislation, H.R. 
245, that will ease the burden for those families or individuals trying 
to sell their house or buy new equipment for a small business.

                              {time}  1215

  The legislation reduces the capital gains tax by 50 percent and seeks 
to eventually end it entirely.
  H.R. 245 also aims at keeping family owned businesses and farms in 
the family. It raises the estate tax exemption so that a son or 
daughter can build on a business that was started by their mother or 
father. This obtrusive death tax brings in only a small amount of 
revenue into the Government and, yet, can have devastating effects on a 
family or a family business.
  Oftentimes a business or farm that has been part of a family for 
generations is forced to be sold just to pay the tax bill. 
Approximately 75 percent of businesses in this country are family owned 
and 78 percent of the founders of those businesses intend to pass their 
business down to their children, but currently only 30 percent of 
businesses ever make it to a second generation.
  Many parents work their entire life to hand down something to their 
children to make their lives better. Under the current system, the 
Government steps in and destroys a lifetime of work. That is wrong, and 
for many it will end with the passage of H.R. 245.
  Just yesterday I, along with the chairman of the Committee on Small 
Business, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Talent], introduced another 
piece of legislation, H.R. 955, that will help to keep the 
entrepreneurial spirit of this country alive.
  The Family Freedom Home Office Deduction Act of 1997 will make it 
easier for the 14,000,000 home-based business owners to deduct the 
expenses of their home office. Small businesses are the single greatest 
creators of jobs in this country and, frankly, in the future. The 
advent of fax machines, Internet and teleconferencing have changed the 
face of business. No longer are businesses confined to large office 
buildings.
  More and more people are working out of their homes. Each of us knows 
people in our district who work from their homes: consultants, 
salespeople, lawyers, doctors, accountants. Many of the people that we 
deal with each day, sometimes unbeknownst to us, are working out of 
their home. Whether it is the father who wants to be there for his 
children or the mother who works as a consultant, working from home has 
become increasingly appealing. Seventy percent of all home-based 
businesses are started by women. The Tax Code should reflect the modern 
business environment of our country.
  America has always been the home of the entrepreneur. This 
legislation is one step in equipping small businesses with the tools it 
needs to continue being the fastest growing sector and job producers in 
our economy.
  Providing every American with tax relief is not a partisan issue. Our 
job here in Congress is to represent the people of America and work to 
make their lives better. Passing tax relief is good for our future and 
the time to act is now.

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