Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2007

• Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amount is increased from $62,550 to $66,250 for joint filers and from $42,500 to $44,350 for single filers for tax year 2007
• Alternative Minimum Tax relief for nonrefundable personal credits is extended for tax year 2007

Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006

• Extensions and modifications of certain tax credits. Extended and modified new markets tax credit for certain equity investments in a qualified community development entity (CDE) through 2008, extended and modified research tax credit through 2007, extended the Indian employment tax credit through 2007, and extended work opportunity tax credit and welfare-to-work tax credit for 2006 and combined and modified these for 2007.
• Extensions and modifications of certain deductions. Extended allowance of sales tax deduction in lieu of deduction for state and local income taxes through 2007, extended the deduction for teachers for school related expenses through 2007, extended deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses through 2007, and extended the enhanced deduction for computer technology and equipment through 2007.
• Earned Income Tax Credit. Extended election to include combat pay that is otherwise excluded from gross income in earned income for Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Zone academy bonds. Extends availability of qualified zone academy bonds (QZABs) for school modernization, equipment and teacher training in high poverty areas, imposes new arbitrage requirements and new spending requirements on QZABs.
• Economic development provisions. Extended tax incentives established by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 for the District of Columbia through 2007, including designation of D.C. zones, wage credit, tax-exempt financing authority for bonds, zero-percent capital gains rate for certain qualified assets, and first-time homebuyer credit. Extended placed-in-service deadline for certain Gulf Opportunity Zone property extension property to qualify for additional first-year depreciation deduction. Provided economic development credit to American Samoa.
• Business provisions. Extended accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations, extended 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold and restaurant improvements.
• Energy Tax Provisions. Allowed credit for electricity produced from certain renewable resources through 2008, extended placed-in-service date for tax credit for electricity produced at certain qualified facilities, extended and expanded clean renewable energy bonds (authorized an additional $400 million of CREBs and increased the maximum amount that may be allocated to qualified projects of governmental bodies to $750 million), allowed deduction for certain energy efficient commercial building property through 2008, extended and expanded to petroleum products expensing of "Brownfields" environmental remediation costs through 2007 for qualified contaminated sites.
• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Allowed a one-time rollover of health reimbursement account (HRA) and health flexible spending arrangement (FSA) funds into HSAs through 2011, repealed provision that limited the maximum annual deductible contribution to an HSA to that under a high-deductible insurance policy effective in 2007, allowed earlier indexing of cost of living adjustments for taxable years beginning after 2007, allowed full deductible contribution for months preceding the month that taxpayer is in high deductible plan beginning in 2007, and allowed one-time direct contribution to an HSA from an individual retirement arrangement (IRA) as of 2007.
• AMT provisions. Allowed refundable long-term individual AMT credit with respect to certain long-term unused alternative minimum tax (AMT) credits existing before January 1, 2013.
• Manufacturing deduction. Allowed deduction for income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico through 2007.

Pension Protection Act of 2006

• IRA provisions. Made permanent the pension and IRA provisions in EGTRRA (increased contribution limits to IRAs and 401(k)s to $5,000 and $15,000 respectively and catch-up contributions for IRAs, increased limitation on exclusion for elective deferrals, increased annual addition limitation for defined contribution plans). Indexed certain income limits for IRA contributions for inflation beginning in 2007; and allowed direct rollovers from retirement plans to ROTH IRAs; allowed direct deposit of tax refunds into IRAs.
• Saver's Credit. Made the Saver’s Credit permanent and annually indexed its income threshold to inflation beginning in 2007.
• Pension plan funding rules. Established new minimum financing standards for single- and multi-employer defined benefit pension plans and increased the deduction limits for these plans.
• Pension plans and health care. Allowed transfer of excess single- and multi-employer defined benefit pension assets to retiree medical accounts, under certain conditions; permitted tax-free distribution from government retirement plans to pay health and long-term care insurance premiums; allowed deductions for contributions to fund a reserve for medical benefits for future years; made tax deductible, portions of annuity and life insurance contracts used to pay health and long-term care insurance premiums.
• Qualified tuition programs. Extended EGTRRA modifications to qualified tuition program rules, including tax exempt withdrawals from qualified tuition accounts and certain rules regarding the coordination with Hope and lifetime learning credit programs.
• PBGC. Changed some rules regarding Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation premiums and interest rates for small employer plans, and created special funding rules for defined benefit plans maintained by commercial airlines, among other changes.
• Charitable contributions and tax exempt organizations. Allowed tax-free distributions from IRAs to certain public charities from age 70 ½ and older, not to exceed $100,000 per taxpayer; extended current law charitable deductions for food and book inventories; adjusted basis of S corporation stock for certain charitable contributions; encouraged contributions of property interest made for conservation purposes; restricted qualifying contributions of clothing and other household items to those in good condition, required greater substantiation (e.g., receipts for all cash gifts) for gifts made, and penalized contributors and appraisers who grossly overvalue donated property.
• Tariffs. Included various small provisions relating to tariffs.

Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (TIPRA)

• Depreciation. Extended the increased expensing allowance for depreciable business property from $25,000 to $100,000; increased threshold amount for determining reductions to the expensing allowance; and increased the period during which a taxpayer may revoke an election to expense depreciable business property through 2009.
• Capital gains. Extended through 2010 reductions in capital gains and dividends tax rates (5 percent for taxpayers in the 15 percent bracket and 15 percent for others) enacted by JGTRRA (2003).
• Inflation adjustment. Accelerated the inflation adjustment to the exclusion amount for foreign earned income to 2006 from 2008; also, extended through 2008 certain exemptions for income of controlled foreign companies.
• AMT. Increased the AMT tax exemption, last altered in 2004 under WFTRA (2004), to $42,500 for single filers and $62,550 for married filers, and extended this through 2006.
• IRAs and Roth IRAs. Allowed taxpayers to convert traditional IRA balances into Roth IRAs; eliminated the income limit ($100,000) on Roth IRA conversions starting in 2010.
• Unearned income of minor children. Increased the age of minor children whose unearned income is taxed as if parent's income from 14 to 18 years old.
• Excise tax penalty. Imposed an excise tax penalty on certain tax-exempt entities for participation in prohibited tax shelter activities.

Energy Tax Incentives Act of the Energy Policy Act of 2005

• Energy Infrastructure Tax Incentives. Extended and modified credit for producing electricity from renewable resources through 2007; Allowed issuance of clean renewable energy bonds through 2007; Provided credit for production from advance nuclear power facilities and investment in clean coal facilities; Allowed a 15-year cost recovery period for the depreciation of certain electric transmission property; Allowed a taxpayer election to carryback net operating losses from transmission property and pollution control investment for a 5-year period.
• Domestic Fossil Fuel Security. Extended a business tax credit for producing fuel from a nonconventional source to include coke or coke gas; Allowed temporary 50 percent expensing for equipment used in refining of liquid fuels; Assigned a 15-year cost recover period for the depreciation of natural gas distribution lines; Allowed the amortization of geological and geophysical expenditures for the exploration for oil and gas within the U.S. over 24 months.
• Conservation and Energy Efficiency. Allowed a tax deduction for energy efficient commercial building property placed in service before 2008; Allowed individual tax credit for certain residential energy efficiency improvements before 2008 and tax credit for 30 percent of expenditures made for certain residential energy efficient property; Allowed business tax credit for production of certain household appliances with specified energy efficiency rating; Allowed investment tax credit for installation of qualified fuel cell property or microturbine property through 2007.
• Alternative Motor Vehicles and Fuels Incentives. Allowed a tax credit for investment in alterative motor vehicles technology through 2014 for qualified fuel cell motor vehicles and 2010 for advanced lean burn, hybrid, and alternative fuel motor vehicles.
• Additional Energy Tax Incentives. Provided tax credit for increasing energy research through 2005.

American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (AJCA)

• Provisions related to repeal of exclusion for extraterritorial income (ETI). Provided transitional relief for taxpayers subject to the ETI repeal by allowing a tax exclusion of 80 percent in 2005 and 60 percent in 2006 of extraterritorial income; created deduction relating to income attributable to U.S. production activities.
• Business tax incentives. Increased section 179 expensing from $25,000 to $100,000 and increased the phase-out threshold amount from $200,000 to $400,000; included software in section 179 property; and extended indexing of deduction limit and phaseout threshold through 2007; instituted 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified (1) leasehold improvements and (2) restaurant improvements, through 2005 only; provided S-corporation reform and simplification; repealed 4.3-cent General Fund excise taxes on various fuels usually through 2005 or 2006; and modified application of the income forecast method of accounting; provided incentives to film and television production and repealed some taxes on distilled spirits, wine, and beer, among other incentives.
• Provisions relating to tax relief for agriculture and small manufacturers. Provided that the General Fund be used to pay all alcohol and fuel and excise taxes; provided outlay payments (in lieu of excise tax credits and refunds) to producers of alcohol fuel mixtures; and provided tax credits for biodiesel (again, from the General Fund); extended some bonus depreciation rules for certain aircraft, among other items.
• Tax reform and simplification for U.S. businesses. Provided incentives to reinvest foreign earnings in the U.S.; installed new interest expense allocation rules; re-characterized overall domestic loss; applied look-through rules for dividends for certain section 902 corporations; based differences and reduction to 2 foreign tax credit baskets; implemented 10-year foreign tax credit carryforward and 1 year carryback; and repealed the 90 percent limitation on the use of foreign tax credits against the AMT among other items.
• Allowed deduction by businesses of state and local general sales taxes through 2005.
• Miscellaneous provisions. Extended and expanded credit for electricity produced from certain renewable resources, among many other items.
• Revenue provisions. Extended certain custom user fees; reformed the tax treatment of leasing transactions; modified the dispositions of transmission property to implement FERC restructuring policy; installed provisions to reduce tax avoidance and curtail tax shelters; modified charitable contribution rules for donations of patents and other intellectual property; modified the valuation of the charitable deduction for vehicles; and provided consistent amortization periods for intangibles, among many other items.

Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 (WFTRA)

• Extended expiring provisions of EGTRRA (2001) and JGTRRA (2003). Extended several provisions, including the $1,000 child tax credit through 2009, the doubling of the standard deduction for joint filers through 2008, the new 10 percent bracket through 2010, and the increased AMT exemption from the AMT through 2005. In addition, accelerated the increase in the refundability of the child tax credit to 15 percent in 2004 instead of 2005.
• Extended other expiring tax provisions through 2005 only. Extended the tax credit for increasing research activities, the work opportunity tax credit, the welfare-to-work tax credit, the treatment of personal nonrefundable credits against the AMT, the deduction for teacher classroom expenses, tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia, Indian employment tax credit, accelerated depreciation of business property on Indian reservations, certain New York Liberty Zone bond provisions, expensing of Brownfields, deduction for clean-fuel vehicles, among others.
• Included combat pay in earnings for tax credit purposes. Included combat pay in earnings for calculating the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, at taxpayer’s election.
• Applied the uniform definition of a qualifying child to most child-related tax provisions.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003

• Introduced Health Savings Accounts. Allowed taxpayers under age 65 to make tax-free deposits up to the deductible on a high deductible plan if they also purchase a catastrophic health policy.
• Provided tax exclusions for certain employer subsidies.
• Increased taxes indirectly by reducing employer incentives to retain prescription drug insurance coverage.
• Introduced a new income-related premium for future Medicare Part B participants based on IRS records sent to the Social Security Administration.

Military Family Tax Relief Act of 2003

• Gain from sale of a home. Extended the five-year period utilized in determining full exclusion of gain from the sale of a principal residence up to ten years for a member of the uniformed or foreign services.
• Death benefits. Doubled from $6,000 to $12,000 military death gratuity payments and provided that the full payment is tax-exempt.
• Education distributions. Exempted distributions made from education IRAs for non-educational purposes from the 10 percent tax penalty if made for an account holder in a military academy.
• Travel expenses. Created above-the-line deduction for overnight travel expenses of National Guard and reserve members traveling more than 100 miles from home.

The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA)

• Accelerated provisions of EGTRRA (2001). Expanded child tax credit to $1,000 per child for 2003-04, reverting to present law (2001-enacted phase ins and outs) in 2005; expanded 15 percent tax bracket and standard deduction for joint filers to double the ranges and levels for single filers for 2003-04, reverting to present law in 2005; expanded 10 percent bracket for 2003-04, reverting to present law in 2005; implemented 2006 rate schedule: 10 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent, 35 percent; increases individual AMT exemption amount by $4,500 single and $9,000 joint for 2003-04.
• Capital gains and dividends. Taxed capital gains with a 15 percent rate for most gains and 5 percent for gains of moderate income taxpayers for 2003-07; becomes 15 percent/0 percent in 2008 and reverts to present law in 2009. Taxed dividends with a 15 percent/5 percent rate structure for 2003-07, 15 percent/0 percent in 2008, reverting to present law in 2009.
• Depreciation. Increased bonus depreciation or expensing to 50 percent for physical asset purchases for 2003-04, reverting to present law in 2005; increased section 179 (100 percent) expensing by raising expensible amounts from $25,000 to $100,000 and the phase-out threshold amount from $200,000 to $400,000.
• Aid to states. Provided states $20 billion in fiscal relief over 2003-04.

The Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002 (JCWA)

• Depreciation allowances. Allowed additional first year depreciation or expensing equal to 30 percent of the adjusted basis of qualified property.
• Five-year carryback provisions. Allowed five-year carryback of net operating losses (NOLs). Temporarily extended the NOL carryback period from two to five years for NOLs arising in taxable years ending 2001 and 2002.
• Unemployment assistance. Provided up to 13 weeks of temporary extended unemployment benefits for eligible displaced workers.
• Expansion of Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Expanded targeted categories to include certain employees in New York City; created a new targeted group for the credit.
• New York. Authorized issuance of $8 billion in tax-exempt private activity bonds for rebuilding the portion of New York City damaged in the September 11, 2001 attack. For New York Liberty Zone, increased the maximum dollar amount that may be deducted.
• Extensions of certain expiring provisions. Extended the following: AMT relief for individuals; credit for purchase of electric vehicles; Section 45 credit for production of electricity from wind, closed loop biomass, and poultry litter; Work Opportunity Tax Credit for two years; Welfare-To-Work Tax Credit for two years; deduction of qualified clean-fuel vehicle property and qualified clean-fuel vehicle refueling property; taxable income limit on percentage depletion for marginal production; authority to issue qualified zone academy bonds; increased carryover payments to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; tax failure to comply with mental health parity requirements; suspension of reduction of deductions for mutual life insurance companies; Archer medical savings accounts (MSAs); tax incentives for investments on Indian reservations; extended and modified exceptions under Subpart F for active financing income; repealed dyed-fuel requirements.

Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA)

• Individual income tax rate reductions. When fully-phased in 2006, levied a new 10 percent rate on the first $12,000 of income for a married couple ($10,000 for a single head of household and $6,000 for an individual); the 15 percent rate begins thereafter; reduced 28 percent rate to 25 percent, the 31 percent rate to 28 percent, the 36 percent rate to 33 percent and the 39.6 percent rate to 35 percent. Repealed the phaseout of the itemized deduction and personal exemption by 2008. Made the 10 percent bracket retroactive, resulting in refund checks of up to $300 for individuals and $600 for couples 4-5 months hence.
• Child tax credit increase. Doubled the $500 per child tax credit to $1,000 and made it refundable for persons earning above $10,000 to the extent of 10 percent for every dollar of earned income above $10,000 up to the maximum per child. The refundability rate rises to 15 percent in 2005 and the $10,000 threshold is indexed for inflation.
• Marriage penalty abatement. Lowered marriage penalties for couples by making the standard deduction and 15 percent bracket twice the size as for a single taxpayer.
• Child and dependent care tax credit increases. Provided a credit of 25 percent on expenditures for employer-provided childcare and increases the dependent care and adoption credits.
• Estate and gift tax reduction and elimination. Gradually reduced the estate and gift tax rate from 55 percent to 45 percent by 2007; raised the effective exemption from $1 million in 2002 to $3.5 million in 2009. Eliminated the estate tax portion entirely in 2010 in lieu of a capital gains tax with high disregard ($3.3 million) for transfers to a surviving spouse.
• PEP and PEASE. Phased-in both the repeal of the personal exemption phase out (PEP) and the repeal of the Pease cut back in itemized deductions, over five years.
• Retirement savings contribution ceiling increases. Increased IRA annual contribution limits from $2,000 to $5,000 and 401(k) limits from $10,000 to $15,000; allowed individuals 50 and older to make larger, catch-up contributions; permitted Roth 401(k)s beginning in 2006; and established a temporary credit for retirement savings for households earning $50,000 or less.
• Education credit and deduction expansions. Among others, allowed $4,000 maximum deduction of college tuition expenses; allowed tax-free distributions from pre-paid college tuition plans, allowed private institutions to offer these, and allowed taxpayers to simultaneously claim HOPE or Lifetime Learning credits in some instances; eliminated the 60 month limit on student loan interest deduction.

Community Renewal Tax Relief Act enacted by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001

• Renewal Communities. Designated 40 renewal communities, 12 in rural areas, to receive the following tax benefits available from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2009: a zero-percent rate for capital gain from sale of qualifying assets, a 15-percent wage credit to employers for the first $10,000 of qualified wages, a commercial revitalization deduction, an additional $35,000 of section 179 expensing for qualified property, an expansion of the work opportunity tax credit for individuals who live in a renewal community.
• Empowerment Zones. Designated nine new empowerment zones and extended present-law empowerment zones through 2009.
• New markets tax credit. Provided new markets tax credit maximum qualifying equity investment of $1 billion in 2001, $1.5 billion in 2002 and 2003, $2 billion in 2004 and 2005, and $3.5 billion in 2006 and 2007.
• Low income housing tax credit. Increased the per-capita low-income tax credit cap from $1.25 per capita to $1.50 per capital in 2001 and $1.75 in 2002. Adjusted for inflation beginning in 2003.
• Expensing Environmental Remediation Costs. Extended the expiration date for expenditures for environmental remediation to be eligible for a current deduction.
• District of Columbia. Extended the $5,000 credit for first-time homebuyers of a principal residence in the District of Columbia. Extended the D.C. Enterprise Zone designation through 2003.
• Medical Savings Accounts. Extended the MSA program through 2002 and renamed MSAs as Archer MSAs.