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News & Views |House Tax Panel to Draft Kosovo Tax Relief; No Word on OffsetFriday, April 9, 1999 OnLine A bill providing tax relief for the troops in Kosovo will be marked up by the House Ways and Means Committee April 13 as Congress returns from its Easter recess. The full House, which will return April 12, is scheduled to vote on the matter as early as April 14, according to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas. The Senate also is set to return April 12. It is unclear how the revenue loss from the measure will be offset. The Joint Committee on Taxation staff has not yet finished estimating the revenue loss from the bill, so the amount of revenue needed is not yet known, congressional aides said. It also is possible the panel will not have to offset the revenue loss because the situation in Kosovo could be declared an emergency that can be funded outside the normal budget rules, or because the amount of revenue loss will be deemed insignificant, congressional aides speculated. The Way and Means Committee staff is operating under the assumption that the bill will have to be paid for, congressional aides said. It is possible that one of the anti-business proposals contained in President Clinton’s fiscal year 2000 budget will be used to offset the revenue loss. |
Details of the Proposal Combat zone pay would be tax-free, the 1998 filing season deadline for those facing hazardous duty would be extended, and the troops would be exempt from the telephone excise tax. "Our men and women serving in the Kosovo area should be focused on one thing and one thing only—keeping themselves safe from harm and achieving our mission. Certainly the last thing they and their families need to worry about right now is dealing with the IRS," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas. Senate Panel to Look at Complexity: The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing April 15 on the complexity of the tax code. A representative from the Internal Revenue Service and a panel of private witnesses will appear at the hearing. |
Archer Looking at Health Proposal: A proposal to create new tax credits that would give each adult an $800 credit per year, and each child $400 per year, to purchase health insurance is being considered by Archer, according to CongressDaily news service. The cost of the proposal would be offset by taxing the
employer share of health insurance premiums or the cost of care for self-insured
companies, CongressDaily reported. |
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