- When Congress voted to make the Bush tax cuts permanent for all individual incomes below $400,000, those also added other provisions in the bill. Some such as the tax break to encourage people to ride mass transit makes sense. Others will leave you scratching your head.
- Congress has an excise tax worth $13.50 per gallon on all rum produced in or imported to the United States. Most of that money is transferred to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, who use the revenue to support their rum industries. The cliff deal extends this tax for another year.
- The "NASCAR loophole," in place since 2004 calls for anyone who builds a racetrack to receive a small tax break which has cost roughly $43 million the past two years. The cliff deal extends this loophole for another year.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Larry McTighe)
- The cliff deal renews special rules for certain studios in Hollywood. They can deduct up to $15 million of their costs if more than three-fourths of the movie’s production takes place in the United States (They can get up to $20 million in deductions if they produce the film in a low-income community).
- Section 403 of the bill extends a credit for “2- or 3-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles.” This is part of an attempt to promote green energy use.
- While the cliff deal has special tax breaks for wind power & other renewal energy sources, it also has tax breaks for non clean energy. A provision in the bill subsidizes coal produced on Native American land at about $2 per ton.
