Tax extenders talks starting
By Bernie Becker, Politico.
Extenders Clock is Ticking: The top tax writers on Capitol Hill are starting to get down to business on dealing with the raft of expired tax breaks, now that the music has stopped not he musical chairs game for House speaker and Ways and Means chairman.
No one really believes there’s a chance that the 50 or so extenders, now expired 10 months, won’t get reupped in some manner before the end of the year. But the how — and, more important, the how long — still remains to be seen.
Both Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch and Sen. Ron Wyden, the Finance panel’s top Democrat, confirmed that the two parties had started discussing a way forward. Hatch and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady both said Thursday that they hope to permanently restore at least some of the extenders before Dec. 31. The two chairmen didn’t waste any time getting together, sitting down on Thursday just hours after Brady officially took over the gavel.