[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 7 (Thursday, January 17, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E42]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE STEALTH TAX RELIEF EXTENSION ACT OF 2008

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                        HON. THOMAS M. REYNOLDS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 17, 2008

  Mr. REYNOLDS. Madam Speaker, I rise today--along with numerous 
original cosponsors--to announce the introduction of the ``Stealth Tax 
Relief Extension Act of 2008''--new legislation that would extend to 
2008 the temporary alternative minimum tax (AMT) relief that Congress 
enacted on a bipartisan basis last month. As the lead sponsor of a 
prior bill--the ``Stealth Tax Relief Extension Act of 2007'' (H.R. 
1112)--on which Congress's year-end AMT patch bill for 2007 was based, 
I urge the House to take the earliest possible action this year on a 
new patch for 2008.
  As my colleagues will recall, last year's AMT patch--which extended 
temporary AMT relief through December 31, 2007, without raising taxes--
was enacted later in the legislative year than ever before. As a result 
of that unprecedented delay in Congressional action on last year's 
patch, the upcoming tax-filing season is expected to involve 
significant disruption and substantial taxpayer confusion. While I 
remain hopeful that bipartisan efforts to achieve a long-term AMT 
solution will eventually bear fruit, I sincerely hope that, over the 
weeks ahead, Republicans and Democrats can, at the very least, work 
together to prevent a similar situation from developing again.
  Accordingly, I am today introducing follow-up legislation that would 
simply extend for an additional year--through December 31, 2008--the 
temporary AMT relief enacted this past December. I am confident that 
the common-sense approach taken in my new legislation will once again 
engender overwhelming, bipartisan support, just as it did last year.
  Specifically, my new legislation would increase the AMT exemption 
level for single filers from $44,350 in 2007 to $46,200 in 2008, and it 
would increase the exemption level for joint filers from $66,250 in 
2007 to $69,950 this year. These increases--$1,850 for singles and 
$3,700 for joint filers--reflect the same dollar amounts by which 
Congress raised these exemption levels in December, and they represent 
the best current estimates of the amounts necessary to ensure that no 
additional taxpayers will be affected by AMT in 2008 than were affected 
in 2007. I have submitted a formal request to the Joint Committee on 
Taxation for an updated estimate as to the exact dollar amounts that 
will be required to achieve this objective, and I expect to receive 
that information sometime next month. At that time, any appropriate 
adjustments to the figures included in today's bill can be made. In the 
interest of ensuring that Congress can begin work on the 2008 AMA patch 
as early in the year as possible, however, I am formally filing this 
bill as a place-holder today.

  Timely introduction of this bill is all the more important in light 
of the heightened, bipartisan interest over recent weeks in enacting an 
economic stimulus package early this year. I would note that the 2008 
AMT patch has been identified by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) 
as among the more effective legislative options to help address the 
current economic situation. As this week's CBO report made clear, 
enacting an AMT patch early this year would permit hard-working, 
middle-class taxpayers to properly adjust their withholding levels to 
provide workers additional take-home pay in each paycheck. Because the 
AMT patch has been estimated to save affected taxpayers an average of 
about $2,000 per year, early enactment of my new legislation would be 
expected to increase the typical AMT-affected worker's take-home pay by 
as much as $167 per month. These taxpayers could, in turn, use those 
additional funds to purchase food, gasoline, healthcare, or other 
critical items that would help them not only meet the material needs of 
their families, but spur the economy as well. In my view, this is 
precisely the sort of immediate, high-impact tax policy change that 
Congress should be discussing as part of the ongoing economic stimulus 
debate, and I would encourage my colleagues to give this idea careful 
consideration as we work to craft a bipartisan stimulus package.
  Clearly, the AMT patch stands on its own merits as a matter of tax 
policy and fairness, as evidenced by the House's overwhelming 352-64 
vote on the free-standing 2007 patch last month. Regardless of whether 
my new AMT patch legislation covering 2008 is included as part of the 
forthcoming stimulus package or is considered separately at a later 
date, I stand ready to work with members on both sides of the aisle to 
prevent this needless tax increase on millions of America's middle-
class taxpayers, while also ensuring that we avoid other unwarranted 
tax increases that would further endanger our economy. Working 
together, I am confident that we can once again protect taxpayers from 
an unwelcome tax hike due to the AMT, and that we can do so in a much 
more responsible manner than occurred last year.

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