Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Berkley hopes to make favorite Nevada tax credit a campaign issue

Click to enlarge photo

Shelley Berkley

WASHINGTON - One thing that didn’t make it into the payroll tax and unemployment bill that passed Congress Friday was a provision that would have also extended a sales tax break hundreds of thousands of Nevadans avail themselves of every year.

Rep. Shelley Berkley said Friday that she intends to do something about it by introducing a bill to extend the tax benefit, which expired at the end of 2011.

But the bill is not likely to move lawmakers any quick resolution.

The sales tax credit allows residents of states that levy high sales taxes to write off some of those taxes against their federal income taxes. It’s a popular credit in Nevada, which has the nation’s 13th-highest average sales tax rate. In an average year, an average Nevada family saves about $1,443 on their taxes, by Berkley’s estimate, through the credit — and over 316,000 Nevadans availed themselves of the credit in 2009.

Berkley expressed her frustration with the omission late Friday in a news release in which she announced her intention to file legislation that would offset the cost of the tax break with a repeal of subsidies to oil companies.

“While Big Oil companies don’t need these tax breaks, Nevadans who are struggling to stay in their homes and put food on their plates do,” she wrote. “Especially during these tough times, Nevada’s families can’t afford a massive tax increase hanging over their heads.”

The expiration of the tax break, it should be noted, won’t affect any Nevadans doing their 2011 income taxes: The tax break was in effect through the end of 2011.

Neither does the lapse in the tax break mean taxpayers will inevitably see their taxes rise at the end of 2012.

The sales tax is one of a number of smaller tax measures — including alternative minimum taxes and research and development tax credits — that are often grouped as a “tax extenders” package that is then shuttled through Congress at the end of the year, just in time to apply to the tax year.

The last time the taxes were extended was at the end of 2010, as part of a large tax overhaul bill that also extended the Bush-era tax cuts for two years, but only stretched out payroll taxes, unemployment benefits, and the “tax extenders” for one year.

The expiration of the extenders has left several businesses and families, supporters argue, planning for a heavier tax burden in the coming year.

But there’s plenty of incentive for Congress to turn back to those extenders later on this year, most likely in the postelection lame duck session. For Congress, there’s already a looming deadline that will force them into tax discussions by the end of the year: the expiration of all the tax provisions that were adopted in 2010. If they do extend the programs by the end of the year, it is possible for them to apply to the 2012 tax year.

But Berkley’s measure being on the books before then does two things. It allows her to raise the subject and push for consideration of her bill in preliminary discussions about the tax code on the Ways and Means committee, of which she is a member. It also ties two topics together that are relevant to her campaign: her crusade to bring tax breaks to Nevadans, and her crusade against oil companies.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy