U.S. Chamber of Commerce Disappointed Over House Tax Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today expressed its disappointment over House passage of the Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007. The bill is not "tax relief" as advertised in its title, the Chamber said, but a tax shift from individual taxpayers to businesses, putting American jobs and the economy at a disadvantage compared with our growing global competitors.

"While the Chamber supports an extension of alternative minimum tax (AMT) relief and the extension of expiring tax provisions, it believes that these provisions should not be paid for with onerous new taxes on American workers and businesses," said Bruce Josten, the Chamber's executive vice president for Government Affairs. "The AMT was never intended to be the revenue generator it has become; rather, it was intended to ensure that all Americans pay their fair share of taxes."

There are many provisions that the U.S. Chamber supports in the tax bill, including the extension of the deduction for state and local general sales tax, the R&D credit, the 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements and qualified restaurant improvements, expensing for "brownfield" environmental remediation costs, the railroad track maintenance credit, the enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory, and the enhanced deduction for corporate contributions of computer equipment for education.

"The Chamber strongly opposes increasing taxes on carried interest, making changes to nonqualified deferred compensation, and deferring the implementation of interest allocation rules," said Josten. "The Chamber will fight hard to remove these unfair provisions from the tax bill and will key vote this bill."

The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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