Domestic Taxes

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on Tuesday said he recently spoke with fellow lawmakers about rolling all tax matters facing Congress into a single bill. 

The impetus behind the proposal is the lack of legislative days to handle all outstanding issues confronting lawmakers. 

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Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) told reporters on Tuesday that his estate tax proposal is near completion. 

"It is our hope that we can get together both on the proposal, the details are pretty well resolved, and on a process by which we can get it passed as soon as possible," he said. 

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday said serious discussions have not taken place in his chamber on adding middle-class relief from the alternative minimum tax (AMT) to legislation extending several expiring measures.

"It's been talked about in the Senate, not so much here," he told reporters. 

AMT relief, commonly called a "patch," expired in 2009. Each year it not only costs tens of billions of dollars to extend, but its cost also increases as more taxpayers become susceptible to the tax since it is not adjusted for inflation. 

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Legislation extending several measures that have either expired or are on the cusp of doing so could cost $180 billion, according to several sources close to the matter. 

These sources caution that nothing is yet written in stone. But since the bill could be one of the last pieces of legislation to pass Congress before lawmakers turn their attention to the upcoming election, it will likely be a large proposal with an expensive price tag. 

Praise that the homebuyer tax credits helped save a struggling sector of the economy could be misplaced, according to Dr. Stan Humphries, chief economist at the real estate website Zillow.

"We suspect that the homebuyer tax credits are, for the most part, stealing demand from later this summer, rather than creating new demand," Humphries said in prepared remarks. "Even with the tax credits in place during the first quarter, inventory levels were rising and home values continued to decline at a steady clip, rather than steadying."

Stocks shot out of the gate this morning, up nearly 4 percent, after the announcement of a $1 trillion loan plan to contain a European debt crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed more than 400 points in early trading and was holding up about 350 points after the European Union unveiled the package Monday morning.

 The gains come after declines in U.S. stocks last week -- falling the most in 14 months -- erasing any upward progress this year as investors focused on Greece's growing financial woes instead of improving U.S. economic news. 

At one point the Dow dropped 1,000 points, causing the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to start an investigation. The regulators said they would make the findings public. 

Two Senators are pushing for an amendment to the financial reform bill that would require the SEC and CFTC to present a report to Congress on what happened. 

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) on Friday announced the introduction of legislation aimed increasing the use of the low-income housing tax credit.

Investor lost their appetite for the credit after the financial crisis hit and capital for low-income housing largely dried up. Cantwell's bill provides incentives that are meant to lure investors back to the credit.  

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The Treasury Department on Thursday showed that nearly $97 billion in Build America Bonds have been issued through Apr. 30, a figure that constitutes 21 percent of municipal bond market. 

"The success of Build America Bonds so far makes a powerful argument for the permanent extension of this program," said Alan Krueger, a Treasury chief economist, in prepared remarks.

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Chairman of House tax-writing committee wants to move forward, but much remains uncertain on taxes.

Lawmakers are looking to give taxpayers the option of prepaying their estate tax, sources close to the issue told The Hill.