April 4, 2014
U.S.

Lapsed tax breaks for wind, research advance in Senate

By Richard Rubin and Michael C. Bender | Bloomberg News | April 04, 2014 | www.bostonglobe.com

WASHINGTON – The Senate Finance Committee voted Thursday to revive almost all of the 55 tax breaks that expired Dec. 31, providing benefits for wind energy, US-based multinational corporations, and motor sports track owners.

Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he supports the package of tax breaks totaling more than $86 billion while adding that he wants to avoid future temporary extensions. Instead, he said, Congress should revamp the entire tax code.

‘‘This will be the last tax extenders bill the committee takes up as long as I am the chairman,’’ said Wyden, who took over the panel earlier this year after Max Baucus became US ambassador to China.

Senators said they lament the need to routinely extend tax breaks – and they keep doing it. The research and development credit, which benefits companies such as Intel Corp., has been expiring periodically since it became law in 1981.

‘‘If something is good tax policy, and it encourages economic growth, then let’s make it permanent,’’ said Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota. ‘‘If it doesn’t, then let’s let it expire.’’

Lawmakers have been unable to find a way out of the temporary revival pattern. They typically reach compromise by agreeing to extend almost all breaks that expired, and that’s what happened Thursday by voice vote.

‘‘The challenge on taxes is to always find the common ground where you can move ahead,’’ Wyden said after the vote. ‘‘What you saw today was the product of a bipartisan negotiation.’’

Making the breaks permanent would require accounting for 10 years of forgone revenue. It would end the lobbying and fund-raising cycle that accompanies the lapsed provisions.

Lawmakers back provisions that are particularly important in their home states and trade support for other members’ favored breaks. These include a mass-transit commuting benefit that aids New York and New Jersey residents and the ability to deduct state sales taxes, which is important in states such as Washington and Florida that lack income taxes.

Among them are the US Public Interest Research Group’s opposition to breaks for multinational corporations, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s call for a deficit-neutral bill, and the small-government Heritage Foundation’s support for abolishing renewable-energy breaks.

The proposal, which faces an uncertain future in the full Senate and the House, would extend the tax breaks through Dec. 31, 2015.

Representative Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has said he wants to focus on making some provisions permanent and repealing others. He is holding a hearing April 8 on the issue.

One item that was not included in the Senate package was a tax credit for making energy-efficient appliances, a break that benefits General Electric and Whirlpool Corp.

Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, the home state of Whirlpool, said industry officials supported the expiration of the break and prefer to address the issue as part of broader tax-code changes.

Democrats, however, voted to prevent Republicans from considering an amendment to delay the excise tax on medical devices for two years. Wyden, who said he shares Republicans’ concerns about the tax, said it was outside the scope of the package.