ACTION

FROM THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (202) 225-3625
November 18, 1999
No. FC 18-A

Congressman Bill Archer (R-TX), Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, announced the conference report on the revenue provisions contained in the conference report for H.R. 1180, the "Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999."

DESCRIPTION OF THE REVENUE PROVISIONS IN THE CONFERENCE AGREEMENT ON THE "TICKET TO WORK AND WORK INCENTIVES ACT OF 1999":

Title I - Extension of Certain Expiring Tax Provisions

• The conference agreement would extend the research and experimentation tax credit through June 30, 2004, and would expand the credit to Puerto Rico and U.S. possessions. The alternative incremental credit rates would be increased by one percentage point.
  
  
• The conference agreement would extend the following provisions through December 31, 2001:
  • Minimum tax relief for individuals permitting full use of personal nonrefundable credits such as the child tax credit,
  • Exception under subpart F for active financing income,
  • Suspension of net income limitation on percentage depletion from marginal oil and gas wells,
  • Work Opportunity Tax Credit,
  • Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit,
  • Exclusion for employer-provided educational assistance,
  • Tax credit for electricity produced by wind and closed-loop biomass facilities (including an expansion to poultry waste),
  • Qualified zone academy bonds,
  • Tax credit for first-time D.C. homebuyers,
  • Extension of expensing for environmental remediation expenditures ("Brownfields"), and
  • Rum coverover for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands ($13.25 per proof gallon).
    
    
• The conference agreement would extend the Generalized System of Preferences through September 30, 2001.

Title II - Other Time Sensitive Provisions

• The conference agreement also contains the following five time-sensitive provisions which would:

• Prohibit the disclosure of advanced pricing agreements (APAs) and APA background files,
• Provide authority to postpone certain tax-related deadlines by reason of year 2000 failures,
• Include certain vaccines against streptococcus pneumoniae to the list of taxable vaccines,
• Delay implementing the requirement that registered motor fuels terminals offer dyed fuel as a condition of registration, and
• Provide that Federal production payments to farmers are not taxable until the year received.

Title III - Revenue Offsets

• The conference agreement contains the following nine revenue offset provisions which would:

• Modify individual estimated tax safe harbor (108.6 percent in 2000 and 110 percent in 2001),
• Provide tax treatment of income and losses on derivatives,
• Provide reporting of cancellation of indebtedness income by non-bank financial institutions,
• Provide conversion of character of income from constructive ownership transactions,
• Provide treatment of excess pension assets used for retiree health benefits,
• Limit installment method for accrual method taxpayers,
• Limit charitable contribution deduction for transfers associated with split-dollar insurance arrangements,
• Provide distributions by a partnership to a corporate partner of stock in another corporation, and
• Provide treatment of real estate investment trusts.