08/04/2006
The U.S. Senate last night stalled a complex bill that would have both reformed the burdensome death tax and also raised the minimum wage. H.R. 5970 also included extensions of other tax-relief measures set to expire soon.
Though the bill received a majority vote of 56 - 42, it needed 60 votes to proceed under Senate rules. When it became clear the bill would not move forward, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tenn., voted against the measure, giving himself the power to bring it up again later this term.
NFIB had urged the Senate to pass the measure, since it provided much-needed tax relief.
"While we have strong concerns about the minimum wage hike, we're supportive of permanent relief of the estate tax and its importance to small businesses, because it is an important first step toward eventual elimination of the estate tax," NFIB Executive Vice President Dan Danner wrote to Congress this week.
As passed by the House last week, the death-tax reduction would gradually raise the individual exemption level to an estate size of $5 million in 2015 and then index the exemption amount to inflation. Estates ranging in size between the exemption amount and $25 million would be taxed at the top capital gains rate, currently 15 percent. In 2011 the cap gains rate, and thus the death tax rate, will rise to 20 percent. Under the House bill, estates larger than $25 million would be taxed at 40 percent starting in 2010, but move down to 30 percent by 2015. In 2015, the $25 million estate size would also be indexed for inflation.
Under H.R. 5970, the minimum wage would step up in phases from its current $5.15 to $7.25 on June 1, 2009. The bill also would streamline some state laws that currently preempt federal wage law by disallowing tips to count toward minimum wage; H.R. 5970 would allow workers who receive tips to receive the lower wage of $2.13 if their tips make up the difference.
Other tax-relief measures extended by H.R. 5970 would include:
- Extension of the research and development tax credit through 2007
- Extension of the sales tax deduction through 2007
- One-year extension and modification of the new-market tax credit
- Extension of the work opportunity and the welfare-to-work credits, with some modifications
