1. Extended credit for homebuyers
Congress recently passed an $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit bill due November 30. The program has been considered successful by dozens of economists, and dozens of industries have lobbied hard for it to be extended. The new legislation also raises income limits and creates a new, lower credit for non-first-time homebuyers.
2. $250 check for Social Security recipients
President Obama has asked Congress to send another batch of $250 checks to recipients of Social Security benefits. Earlier in the year, checks were sent to Social Security recipients as well as taxpayers enrolled in the Veterans Administration, Railroad Retirement, and Supplemental Security Income benefit programs as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. February. Since it was announced last week that there would be no increase in the amount of money people will receive in Social Security this year, many are predicting another one-time payment.
3. Extend unemployment benefits
With companies cutting back, it’s getting harder for Americans to find new jobs, so the average time it takes someone to find a new employer is now longer than the time they can collect unemployment benefits. Therefore, Congress is likely to extend the amount of time that people can collect their benefits. Some proposals in the House of Representatives aim to provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits in states with unemployment rates of 8.5% or higher, while the Senate is considering proposals to extend benefits in all states.
4. Health Insurance for Unemployed Workers
Earlier this year, Congress passed a law subsidizing 65% of COBRA health insurance premiums for workers laid off between September 2008 and the end of this year. For those of you who may not already know, COBRA is the program that allows taxpayers to keep their health insurance benefits after they have been let go. Since the subsidy, COBRA enrollment has doubled and Congress is expected to extend this program into next year.
5. Incentives for companies that hire new employees
The original stimulus package had a tax credit for employers who hire new workers, but it was removed before the bill became law. Now members of Congress are considering a variety of proposals aimed at providing incentives for businesses to hire new employees. There is a proposal in the Senate to offer a tax credit of $4,000 to companies that increase their payroll. However, there is a lot of criticism of these types of incentives, and I’m not sure any will ever become law.
6. Loss Refunds
It was announced a few weeks ago that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also considering a proposal by a Republican congresswoman to allow companies that are losing money to use their losses to recoup taxes paid in the previous five years. Currently, most businesses can only use current losses to get refunds from the prior year. A similar proposal was included in an early draft of the February stimulus package, but was dropped when it was discovered that it would cost almost $20 billion.