Stealth Tax Relief Extension Act of 2007

Madam Speaker, I rise today--along with numerous original cosponsors--to announce the introduction of the ``Stealth Tax Relief Extension Act of 2008''--new legislation that would extend to 2008 the temporary alternative minimum tax (AMT) relief that Congress enacted on a bipartisan basis last month. As the lead sponsor of a prior bill--the ``Stealth Tax Relief Extension Act of 2007'' (H.R. 1112)--on which Congress's year-end AMT patch bill for 2007 was based, I urge the House to take the earliest possible action this year on a new patch for 2008.

As my colleagues will recall, last year's AMT patch--which extended temporary AMT relief through December 31, 2007, without raising taxes-- was enacted later in the legislative year than ever before. As a result of that unprecedented delay in Congressional action on last year's patch, the upcoming tax-filing season is expected to involve significant disruption and substantial taxpayer confusion. While I remain hopeful that bipartisan efforts to achieve a long-term AMT solution will eventually bear fruit, I sincerely hope that, over the weeks ahead, Republicans and Democrats can, at the very least, work together to prevent a similar situation from developing again.

Accordingly, I am today introducing follow-up legislation that would simply extend for an additional year--through December 31, 2008--the temporary AMT relief enacted this past December. I am confident that the common-sense approach taken in my new legislation will once again engender overwhelming, bipartisan support, just as it did last year.

Specifically, my new legislation would increase the AMT exemption level for single filers from $44,350 in 2007 to $46,200 in 2008, and it would increase the exemption level for joint filers from $66,250 in 2007 to $69,950 this year. These increases--$1,850 for singles and $3,700 for joint filers--reflect the same dollar amounts by which Congress raised these exemption levels in December, and they represent the best current estimates of the amounts necessary to ensure that no additional taxpayers will be affected by AMT in 2008 than were affected in 2007. I have submitted a formal request to the Joint Committee on Taxation for an updated estimate as to the exact dollar amounts that will be required to achieve this objective, and I expect to receive that information sometime next month. At that time, any appropriate adjustments to the figures included in today's bill can be made. In the interest of ensuring that Congress can begin work on the 2008 AMA patch as early in the year as possible, however, I am formally filing this bill as a place-holder today.

Timely introduction of this bill is all the more important in light of the heightened, bipartisan interest over recent weeks in enacting an economic stimulus package early this year. I would note that the 2008 AMT patch has been identified by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as among the more effective legislative options to help address the current economic situation. As this week's CBO report made clear, enacting an AMT patch early this year would permit hard-working, middle-class taxpayers to properly adjust their withholding levels to provide workers additional take-home pay in each paycheck. Because the AMT patch has been estimated to save affected taxpayers an average of about $2,000 per year, early enactment of my new legislation would be expected to increase the typical AMT-affected worker's take-home pay by as much as $167 per month. These taxpayers could, in turn, use those additional funds to purchase food, gasoline, healthcare, or other critical items that would help them not only meet the material needs of their families, but spur the economy as well. In my view, this is precisely the sort of immediate, high-impact tax policy change that Congress should be discussing as part of the ongoing economic stimulus debate, and I would encourage my colleagues to give this idea careful consideration as we work to craft a bipartisan stimulus package.

Clearly, the AMT patch stands on its own merits as a matter of tax policy and fairness, as evidenced by the House's overwhelming 352-64 vote on the free-standing 2007 patch last month. Regardless of whether my new AMT patch legislation covering 2008 is included as part of the forthcoming stimulus package or is considered separately at a later date, I stand ready to work with members on both sides of the aisle to prevent this needless tax increase on millions of America's middle- class taxpayers, while also ensuring that we avoid other unwarranted tax increases that would further endanger our economy. Working together, I am confident that we can once again protect taxpayers from an unwelcome tax hike due to the AMT, and that we can do so in a much more responsible manner than occurred last year.