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Emergency Economic Stabilization, Energy Improvement and Extension, and Tax Extenders and AMT Relief Acts of 2008

On October 3, 2008, Congress passed and President Bush signed H.R. 1424, Emergency Economic Stabilization, Energy Improvement and Extension, and Tax Extenders and AMT Relief Acts of 2008, into law.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said that Congress has “done its job” as the House of Representatives approved the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 – a financial rescue plan that will allow the U.S. Treasury to purchase bad assets threatening the solvency of American financial institutions.

The following is a summary of the tax provisions of the law.

Tax Relief Promoting Jobs, Energy, Families

The financial rescue plan contains the entire text of H.R. 6049 as amended by the Senate on September 23 – including

• Clean energy tax incentives,
• Alternative minimum tax relief,
• Extensions of expiring business and family tax cuts,
• Disaster relief,
• Mental health parity, and
• Other provisions.

The Senate amended H.R. 6049 with two measures – one containing energy tax incentives and the other containing all remaining provisions. The combined cost for all measures – energy, AMT, “extenders,” and other provisions – is approximately $150 billion, and the offsets in the package total approximately $43.5 billion. Energy provisions are completely offset, and “extenders” and other provisions are partially offset. Of the total cost, $64.1 billion is unoffset AMT relief. Both the House and Senate have previously passed unoffset AMT relief this year.

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