House Passes Job Creation Bill

Tax Relief Provides Incentives for Business Expansion

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an effort to continue the country’s economic progress, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bill aimed at encouraging job growth by reducing the tax burden of manufacturers and other businesses.  

The bill, titled the American Jobs Creation Act, ends tariffs on American manufacturers and farmers and provides tax relief to domestic manufacturers and U.S. employers to make them more competitive both at home and abroad.  These incentives will help American employers create jobs here at home.

“Our goal is to ensure that every American who wants a job can get one. To make that happen, we need to make the United States to be the best place in the world to do business,” said Pryce. “This legislation continues the Republican commitment to keep our economy moving forward by creating a friendly environment for businesses to invest and hire new workers.”

Among the bill’s highlights:

• Provides a 3 percent cut in the corporate tax rate for all domestic manufacturing activity.  This will spur investment and jobs in the United States.
• Allows small businesses to purchase new equipment to provide more products and services to their customers.  By allowing small businesses to immediately expense up to $100,000 in equipment purchases, rather than over a period of years, business owners are free to spend more money growing their businesses through hiring.
• Encourages companies to reinvest foreign earnings in the United States by temporarily taxing repatriated income at 5.25 percent.  This has the potential to bring billions of dollars back to the U.S. for direct investment into our economy.
• Repeals the 4.3-cent gas excise tax, making gasoline cheaper for all Americans.
• Allows taxpayers to deduct state and local sales taxes instead of state income taxes for 2004 and 2005.  Taxpayers may deduct their actual sales taxes or used IRS-published tables.