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Congressman Cummings Provides Tax Relief to Millions of Middle Class Families
Washington, DC—Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), a member of the Joint Economic Committee, joined a majority of his colleagues today in the House of Representatives to pass H.R. 3996, the Temporary Tax Relief Act. The bill, which will provide 23 million middle-class families with over $50 billion in tax relief without increasing the national debt, passed by a vote of 216-193.
“For nearly a decade, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have mortgaged our grandchildren’s futures in order to provide tax cuts and loopholes to the wealthiest Americans,” Congressman Cummings said. “Today, we took a stand to reverse these failed, unfair policies to provide real tax relief to millions of hardworking families.”
The major component of the bill provides a patch that will protect 23 million families from being hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT was created in 1969 to stop the wealthiest Americans from paying little to no income tax by exploiting tax loopholes. While it initially succeeded at this goal, impacting less than 1 percent of taxpayers in any year before 2000, it was not indexed for inflation like regular income tax—meaning that an increasing number of middle class families will face significantly higher taxes, despite their real incomes remaining the same.
This year in the State of Maryland, 613,000 families would be forced to pay the AMT—a 471% increase from the 117,000 households who paid it in 2005. The AMT patch in H.R. 3996 will protect 552,000 households statewide from paying the AMT, including nearly 45,000 in the 7th Congressional District.
“Today is a victory for millions of Americans who will be spared another year from unfairly paying the AMT,” Congressman Cummings said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass future legislation that will permanently eliminate the AMT from threatening the families who were never meant to be affected by it.”
The legislation also cracks down on special interest tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans by stopping hedge fund managers and CEO’s from escaping income taxes by using offshore tax havens as unlimited retirement accounts and by closing loopholes that allow the privileged few on Wall Street to pay a lower tax rate on their income than other hardworking Americans, such as teachers and firefighters.
Additionally, it provides 30 million homeowners with property tax relief, saves money for 3.4 million teachers with a classroom expense deduction, and helps make college more affordable for 4.5 million families through the tuition deduction.
“Republican mis-priorities, fiscal irresponsibility, and tax cuts for the wealthy have resulted in $9 trillion of national debt,” Congressman Cummings said. “Today, Congress was finally able to pass responsible tax relief to help move our economy in a new, healthy direction.”
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