Legislative update - House to vote on Speaker Boehner’s “Plan B”  

December 21: House Speaker Boehner pulled H.J. Res. 66 from floor consideration. Congress has recessed for the Christmas holiday.


December 20: The House was to vote later this evening on H.J. Res. 66—the vehicle for the text of “Plan B” offered by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and that would permanently extend many of the 2001 and 2003 individual income tax provisions at a cost of $4.14 trillion.

Read the legislative text: H.J. Res. 66 [PDF 59 KB]


The White House on Wednesday issued a veto threat. Senate Democratic leaders said they would not bring up the House bill.


In its statement, the White House said Plan B “would continue large tax cuts for the very wealthiest individuals while raising taxes on 25 million students and working families by an average of $1,000 each.”

Summary of provisions

Included in Plan B are provisions that would:


  • Retain current-policy tax brackets for individuals with taxable income of less than $1 million ($500,000 for married filing separately), meaning that for taxpayers over those thresholds, the tax rate will revert to 39.6%
  • Repeal the 2001 act sunsets affecting:
    • Personal exemption phaseout and itemized deduction limitation (PEP and Pease)
    • Child and family provisions
  • Continue the current estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax rules: 35% maximum rate, with a $5 million exemption amount.
  • Continue the maximum 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends, but enact a 20% maximum rate if the income would otherwise be taxed at the 39.6% rate (for taxable income of $1 million or more)
  • Increase the section 179 expensing amounts and threshold limits ($250,000 / $800,000); under the permanent version of Plan B, both would be indexed for inflation
  • increase the alternative minimum tax exemption amounts to $78,750 / $50,600 (joint/single filers) and AMT relief for nonrefundable credits; under the permanent version of Plan B, the AMT would be indexed for inflation


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