Garrett Gazette

Op-Ed

Garrett Gazette

Dear Friends:

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) is an unfair and outdated tax and Congress needs to repeal it or, at the very least, make serious reforms to it. It was originally established to keep a small number of very wealthy taxpayers from evading taxes in the 1960s. But because Congress then failed to index it to inflation, it now squarely hits the American middle class.

In the final days of the first session of the 110th Congress in December, Congress passed a one-year patch to keep millions of middle-class families from being ensnared by this stealth tax. Regrettably, despite urging by me and many of my colleagues, the new House majority held up this patch legislation to the last minute and, as a result, as many as 13.5 million taxpayers may experience delays in their tax refunds.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had warned last year that it needed time to reformulate tax forms and systems, but those warnings went unheeded. According to the IRS:

IRS has targeted Feb. 11, as the potential starting date for taxpayers to begin submitting the five-related returns affected by the [patch] legislation. The February date allows the IRS enough time to update and test its systems to accommodate the changes without major disruptions to other operations related to the tax season. See IRS News Release 2007-209 for more information.

Returns that include the following forms cannot be filed until Feb. 11, 2008:

Form 8863, Education Credits

Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits

Schedule 2, Form 1040A, Child and Dependent Care Expenses for Form 1040A Filers

Form 8396, Mortgage Interest Credit

Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit

If you believe that you may be impacted by the AMT, you can check the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=176605,00.html for AMT-related updates.

Sincerely,

Congressman Scott Garrett

ISSUE OF THE WEEK: FAILURE TO ENACT H2-B VISA EXTENSION MAY HARM NEW JERSEY SMALL BUSINESSES

The H2-B visa program permits seasonal, non-agricultural workers to get temporary work visas in the United States. Many small businesses, particularly landscaping businesses, use this program to fill in their employment ranks when college students and other temporary help are not available and to accommodate peak employment needs. Regrettably, this program - which has strong bipartisan support in Congress - fell victim to immigration reform politics within the House Democrat Caucus and a number of local small businesses may suffer as a result.

On September 30, 2007, a longstanding exemption that allowed workers who had come to the U.S. in any of the last three years to come again without being counted toward the annual cap of 66,000 H2-B visas expired. It is estimated that the exemption had allowed an additional 100,000 seasonal, non-agricultural workers to come to the U.S. following background checks. The program helps American small businesses without encouraging the use of illegal immigrants for these jobs.

An extension of this exemption had been included in legislation to be considered shortly before Congress adjourned in December. But, opposition from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the AFL-CIO forced the new House majority to strip the provision from that bill. I sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to urge her to allow this extension to be considered promptly by the House of Representatives and I remain hopeful that she will put it on the calendar when Congress returns to Washington this month. The text of my letter is below:

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Madame Speaker,

I was very disappointed that the final version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, did not will not contain a provision to extend until September 30, 2008, returning seasonal workers from the current national cap of 66,000 H-2B visas. Earlier this year, by Unanimous Consent, the Senate adopted this provision in the form of an amendment offered by Senator Mikulski.

According to a press report in Congressional Quarterly, the reason this provision was not included in the final bill was because certain Members of your caucus preferred to hold this popular provision as bait for a broader comprehensive immigration reform package. Madame Speaker, if this report is true, it is very disappointing. For the past two years, while Members have had sincere disagreements about the direction of many different comprehensive immigration reform proposals, Congress established and extended the returning worker exemption of the H-2B visa program. A one-year extension of the returning worker exemption would surely have met with very broad, bipartisan support.

In my home district in New Jersey, many employers, particularly in the landscaping industry, will be adversely affected by not extending the expanded visa program. These are primarily small businesses that can use this program to fill their peak needs in the spring and fall, when traditional temporary workers, such as college students, are unavailable. The program also allows small businesses to not have to produce significant layoffs when work demand is "out of season."

Though Congress has failed to address this issue in the first session of the 110th Congress, I do hope it will be addressed quickly upon our return….

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