SENATE PASSES KERRY-OBAMA LEGISLATION TO CLOSE KBR TAX LOOPHOLE, PROVIDE TAX RELIEF FOR TROOPS

05/22/2008

SENATE PASSES KERRY-OBAMA LEGISLATION TO CLOSE KBR TAX LOOPHOLE, PROVIDE TAX RELIEF FOR TROOPS

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators John Kerry and Barack Obama today announced that the Senate passed the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (The "HEART Act"). The Act would provide tax relief to the men and women in our nation's armed services and others volunteering service on behalf of the United States, including Peace Corps volunteers and AmeriCorps volunteers – and is paid for by the Kerry-Obama tax reform that closed the tax loophole that allowed defense contractor KBR to avoid paying its fair share of taxes..

The Act passed the House yesterday and now goes to the President for his signature.

Kerry and Obama were instrumental in ensuring that the funds that will be used to pay for these benefits came from defense contractors that were not paying their fair share of taxes. In March, they introduced the Fair Share Act of 2008 to close the loophole that had allowed KBR to fleece the American taxpayer by almost $100 million a year. It was discovered that KBR and another defense contractor have avoided paying their fair share of Social Security and Medicare taxes by creating shell companies in the Cayman Islands. The Fair Share Act of 2008 will end the practice of U.S. government contractors setting up sham companies in foreign jurisdictions to avoid payroll taxes.

“Now thousands of military families in Massachusetts will receive the benefits they deserve and big companies will pay their fair share of taxes rather than leaving hard working Americans with the bill,” said Senator Kerry.

“This important bill will provide much needed tax relief to our brave service members and hold American companies accountable for paying taxes and guaranteeing that employees receive the benefits they are entitled to through their employment,” said Senator Obama. “For the sake of transparency and fairness in our tax system, we cannot allow Federal contractors to set up shell corporations in tax shelters and shirk their responsibility to pay payroll taxes for their American employees. I commend Senator Kerry for his leadership on behalf of America's small businesses, workers, and service members and I call on the President to sign this bill into law.”

The HEART Act includes several provisions included in legislation introduced by Kerry and Senator Gordon Smith (D-Oregon) in January of 2007. The Active Duty Military Tax Relief of 2007 aimed to bolster military families and small businesses that employ reservists.

The HEART Act would:

• Enable active duty military personnel to qualify for economic stimulus payments. The HEART Act would clarify that active military who file a joint tax return would be eligible for the stimulus rebate payment even if the spouse does not have a Social Security number;
  
• Make permanent the ability to include combat pay as earned income for purposes of the Earned Income Tax Credit. The earned income tax credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit for eligible low-income workers. Generally, "earned income" includes taxable wages, salaries, tips, and other employee compensation. Some low-income military families who receive the EITC based on taxable military pay could lose this tax credit if they begin receiving non-taxable combat pay and have no other earned income on which to claim the EITC. The HEART Act would extend the provision that allows America's military men and women to count combat pay for the purposes of qualifying for the earned income tax credit.
  
• Make permanent and modify qualified mortgage bonds used to finance residences for veterans. To give our nation's brave veterans greater access to homeownership, the HEART Act would permanently extend the provision that allows veterans to qualify for state-operated, tax-exempt mortgage revenue bond programs. This program provides financing to provide lower-income individuals without regard to the general first-time home buyer requirement;
  
• Modify retirement plan protections for reservists who have given their lives in service or who are disabled while serving our country. The HEART Act would modify the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act to: 1) allow the day prior to the date of death to be treated as the date the employee returned to work for purposes of triggering payment of benefits under a qualified plan; and 2) permit an employer to make certain contributions to a qualified pension plan on behalf of an employee who is killed or becomes disabled in combat;
  
• Modify treatment of differential wages paid by an employer to an employee who becomes active duty military. In the case of an employee who is called to active duty with the United States uniformed services, some employers voluntarily agree to continue paying the level of compensation that the service member would otherwise have received from the employer during the service member's period of active duty. This "differential pay" is not treated as wages for purposes of the federal income tax withholding rules that apply to an employer's payment of wages. The HEART Act would treat differential wages paid by an employer to an employee who becomes active duty military as wages for withholding and retirement plan purposes;
  
• Extend the period for filing tax refund credit claims arising from Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) disability determinations. Because of the lapse of time between retirement and the determination of, or the onset and determination of, a service connected disability, the HEART ACT would extend the statute of limitations to permit retired military personnel to file claims for refunds one year after the date of the determination of a service-connected disability is made;
  
• Make permanent the special rules that permit penalty-free withdrawals from retirement plans. Generally, there is a ten percent withdrawal tax on early distributions from certain retirement plans. Because reservists called to active duty may need access to amounts that they have contributed to their retirement plans in order to meet their personal financial obligations while serving our country, the HEART Act would extend special rules that permit active duty reservists to make penalty-free withdrawals from their retirement plans, and a reservist has two-years from the last day of the active duty period to contribute distributions to an IRA;
  
• Permit recipients of military death benefit gratuities to roll over the amounts received to tax-favored accounts for retirement and education savings. To enable survivors of servicemembers should be able to contribute death benefit proceeds to accounts to save for future retirement and education needs, the HEART Act would permit recipients of military death benefit gratuities to roll over the amounts received, tax-free, to a Roth IRA or an Education Savings Account; and
  
• Provide a tax credit for small employers with respect to differential wage payments to employees who are on active military duty. Many employers voluntarily eliminate any pay gap between the reservists' civilian pay and military pay by paying the difference. The proposal would treat the pay gap as wages requiring information reporting and subject the differential pay payments to withholding. The proposal would also make it easier for employers to contribute to their activated employee's retirement plans.

The HEART Act would also permanently allow the Social Security Administration to disclose tax return information to the DVA for purposes of determining eligibility for certain veteran's programs; clarify that certain tax rebates and benefits are excludible from income for volunteer firefighters; clarify the application of the "five-year requirement" to the sale of a principal residence by a Peace Corps volunteer; clarify that state payments to service members are treated as qualified military benefits; and provide for permanent exclusion of gain from the sale of a principal residence by certain employees of the intelligence community.

Supplemental Social Security Income

To ensure fairer treatment of military families who depend on Supplemental Security Income payments, the HEART Act would:

• Allow most military cash allowances beyond basic pay to be treated as earned income for purposes of determining Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility and benefit amounts for military families, and treat certain housing payments as in-kind support and maintenance;
  
• Disregard state annuity payments paid to blind, disabled, and aged veterans when determining SSI eligibility and benefits; and
  
• Disregard allowances paid to all Americorps volunteers for the purpose of determining SSI eligibility and benefit amounts.

Revenue Provisions

• The HEART ACT would, revise tax rules on expatriation. American citizens and long-term U.S. residents are subject to tax on their worldwide income. Under current law, taxpayers can avoid taxes by renouncing their citizenship or terminating their residence. The Heart Act would tighten current law rules to ensure that certain high net-worth taxpayers cannot renounce their citizenship or terminate their residence in order to avoid U.S. taxes. Under this provision, high net-worth individuals would be treated as if they sold all of their property for its fair market value on the day before such individual expatriates or their residency would be terminated. The gain would be recognized to the extent that the aggregate gain recognized exceeds $600,000 (which will be adjusted for cost of living in the future).
  
• Modify treatment of certain foreign persons performing services under contract with United States. The Heart Act generally would treat foreign subsidiaries of American companies performing services under a U.S. government contract as American employers for employment tax purposes. The domestic parent would be jointly liable for employment taxes imposed on the foreign subsidiary.
  
• Increase general failure to file return penalty. The Heart Act would increase the general penalty for failure to file tax returns to the lesser of $135 or 100 percent of the amount required to be shown on such return.

Mental Health Parity

• The HEART Act would extend current law excise tax for failure to comply with the mental health parity requirements for benefits for services furnished on or after the date of enactment through December 31, 2008. Current law requires certain group health plans to provide the same coverage for mental health benefits that they provide for medical and surgical health benefits. The HEART Act would extend the imposition of a $100-per-day excise tax on group health plans that fail to comply with this requirement.

05/21/2008

Kerry Applauds Banking Committee Passage of Housing Trust Fund

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry announced that the Senate Banking Committee passed the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 by a vote of 19-2. The Act overhauls regulations of government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and establishes a Housing Trust Fund to supply rental housing for struggling homeowners across Massachusetts and the nation. Kerry first introduced the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund in 2000 and reintroduced it in each successive Congress.

“The Housing Trust Fund will help insure that all Massachusetts families, and especially our poorest children, can live in safe, decent housing. The Senate Banking committee has made a critical step towards its enactment,” Senator Kerry said. “Producing affordable rental housing will create critically-needed construction jobs and help get our economy moving again. I want to thank Chairman Dodd and Senator Jack Reed for their outstanding work in developing this legislation.”

In 2000, Senator Kerry wrote the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act to provide funds for the production of rental housing to extremely low-income families. The legislation sought to fund the construction of 1.5 million affordable housing units over ten years. The bill has a bipartisan group of 22 cosponsors in the Senate. A similar bill introduced by Congressman Barney Frank passed the House of Representatives last year. Senator Kerry’s legislation is supported by approximately 5,700 housing organizations, including the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Home Builders, Children’s Defense Fund, United States Conference of Mayors, the National Coalition for the Homeless, and others.

Congressman Barney Frank said, “I am very pleased that the Senate has agreed to join the House in establishing an affordable housing trust fund. When I became the Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, I made this a very high priority. The fact that we have finally been able to achieve this long sought goal is one of the most important consequences of the Democrats achieving majorities in the House and Senate.” Frank noted that legislation involving the affordable housing trust fund had passed both House and Senate committees in the previous Congress but was blocked in each case by Republican leadership from coming to the floor.

“Today is a milestone in the quest to assure a decent home for everyone in the United States, with bipartisan support in the Senate Banking Committee for housing trust fund to build and preserve homes for the lowest income families. The action by the Senate Banking Committee marks the path for enactment of a National Housing Trust Fund in the 110th Congress,” said Shelia Crowley, President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

“During this time of rising rents and foreclosures, we need a Housing Trust Fund to help low income working families,” said Aaron Gornstein, Executive Director of the Citizens' Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA). “We greatly appreciate the leadership of Senator Kerry in helping to alleviate the affordable housing crisis facing Massachusetts.”

More specifically, the Act will require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide funding, 65% of which will be used for the Housing Trust Fund, and 35% will go toward a Capital Magnet Fund to leverage affordable housing development and community development activities. The provisions on the Housing Trust Fund are similar to the provisions included in the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act that Kerry introduced last December to produce rental housing for low-income families.

The Act also creates a new regulator which has the authority to keep both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operating in a safe, sound manner consistent with their affordable housing responsibilities. It increases capital requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and permanently increases loan limits from $417,000 to $550,000.

It also includes a new Hope for Homeowners provision to help lenders limit losses from foreclosures by agreeing to reduce principal balances of mortgage loans at risk of default. Borrowers can then apply to refinance with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage insured by the Federal Housing Administration. This provision will help more than 500,000 homeowners facing foreclosure stay in their homes.