[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 24, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              AMENDMENT TO THE TAXPAYER RELIEF ACT OF 1997

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BILL ARCHER

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 24, 1997

  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, for the information of the House, today I 
have submitted for printing in the Record a copy of a proposed 
amendment to H.R. 2014, the ``Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997,'' as 
reported. I have requested that this amendment be incorporated into the 
base bill upon adoption of the rule. The following is an explanation of 
the amendment:

         Description of Proposed Archer Amendment to H.R. 2014


                1. Modifications to the child tax credit

       The amendment would provide that in the case of lower- and 
     middle-income taxpayers, the otherwise allowable child tax 
     credit is not reduced by one-half of the otherwise allowable 
     dependent care credit. Under the amendment, the reduction 
     only applies to taxpayers above certain thresholds of 
     modified adjusted gross income (``modified AGI''). For 
     married taxpayers filing joint returns, the thresholds is 
     $60,000. For taxpayers filing single or head of household 
     returns, the threshold is $33,000. For married taxpayers 
     filing separate returns, the threshold is $30,000. The 
     reduction is phased in over the first $10,000 ($5,000, in the 
     case of single individuals and $5,000, in the case of married 
     individuals filing separate returns) of modified AGI above 
     the threshold. The rules for determining a taxpayer's 
     modified AGI and marital status under the bill remained 
     unchanged. The effective date would be years of beginning on 
     or after January 1, 2000.
       The amendment would provide that the Secretary of the 
     Treasury shall submit notice to all taxpayers of the passage 
     of the child tax credit. In addition, the amendment would 
     direct the Secretary of the Treasury to modify withholding 
     tables for single taxpayers claiming more than one exemption 
     and for married taxpayers claiming more than two exemptions 
     to take account of the effects of the child tax credit. The 
     adjustments to the withholding tables would apply to 
     employees whose annualized wages from an employer are 
     expected to be at least $30,000, but not more than $100,000.


                      2. Estimated tax safe harbor

       The amendment would change the 110-percent-of-last-year's-
     liability estimated tax safe harbor to a 105-percent-of-last-
     year's-liability safe harbor for 1998.


       3. Repeal alternative minimum tax depreciation adjustment

       The amendment would direct the Secretary of the Treasury to 
     conduct a study of whether the repeal of the depreciation 
     adjustment for minimum tax purposes would have the result of 
     permitting any corporation with taxable income from current 
     year operations to pay no Federal income tax and, if so, the 
     policy implications of that result. The study would be due no 
     later than January 1, 2001, to the House Committee on Ways 
     and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance.


             4. Airport and Airway Trust Fund excise taxes

       The amendment would provide that the deposit rules with 
     respect to the commercial air passenger excise taxes are 
     modified to permit payment of these taxes that otherwise 
     would have been required to be deposited during the period 
     July 1, 1998, through September 30, 1998, to be deposited on 
     October 13, 1998.


   5. Modification to tax benefits for ethanol and renewable source 
                                methanol

       The amendment would delete those provisions in the bill 
     relating to a reduction in tax benefits for ethanol and 
     renewable source methanol.


                           6. Name of the Act

       The amendment would change the name of the Act from the 
     ``Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1997'' to the ``Taxpayer 
     Relief Act of 1997''.


    7. Change in budgetary treatment of certain expiring provisions

       The amendment would amend the Balanced Budget and Emergency 
     Deficit Control Act of 1985 to provide that any preferential 
     rate (or any credit or refund) that is scheduled to expire 
     and that, under current scorekeeping conventions, is presumed 
     to be extended for purposes of determining the present-law 
     revenue baseline shall, for budget scorekeeping purposes, be 
     assumed to expire on the scheduled expiration date.

     

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