Domestic Taxes

Federal government workers as a whole  owe $1 billion in overdue taxes.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) on Thursday said a final vote on legislation extending the Bush-era tax cuts could wait until after the election. 

The Tax Policy Center has unveiled a Tax Calculator that helps taxpayers better understand how their paychecks could be affected by changes in tax policy.

After being pressed on the issue, President Obama on Thursday refused to threaten to veto a bill that would extend all the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush.

Instead, the president reiterated his concern that extending the tax cuts for the wealthy would drive up the deficit and do little to help the economic recovery.

President Obama on Wednesday personally called for phasing out tax cuts for the rich.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is opposed to the plan by President Obama and other Democratic leaders to only extend the tax cuts benefiting the middle class that were enacted under President George W. Bush. 

The pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries stand to benefit from President Obama's proposal to expand the research and development tax credit, according to Wall Street analysts.

Obama is pressing Congress to expand the tax credit by about 20 percent and make it permanent. First introduced in 1981, the credit has been extended 13 times and expired eight times — most recently on Dec. 31, 2009.

"AdvaMed has long supported making the R&D tax credit permanent," said Brett Loper, senior executive vice president for government affairs for the Advanced Medical Technology Association. "We look forward to seeing the details of this new proposal and the other tax changes being discussed today to determine how they will affect America’s medical technology companies."

House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) criticized President Obama’s call for business taxes on Wednesday and said Obama should support an extension of all of the Bush tax cuts.

The No. 3 House Republican said it would be a “profoundly bad idea” to implement Obama’s proposal for certain business tax cuts if Obama also raises taxes on wealthier taxpayers.

“You don’t pay for tax breaks with tax increases, it would be a profoundly bad idea for this administration to advance a few, good boutique tax cuts but pay for them with across-the-board tax increases on job creators in this country,” Pence told reporters on a conference call Wednesday morning.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) on Wednesday launched a multi-state, multi-million-dollar ad campaign opposing the energy tax increase President Obama seeks to pay for his $50 billion infrastructure initiative. 

The ad's message is that tax increases will limit job growth in the country. 

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) on Wednesday supported the call by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to continue the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for the next two years.