Tuesday 4 November 2008

Economic plans of Barack Obama

Democrat Barack Obama proposed a $60 billion package that would:

• Give businesses a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each new full-time employee hired in the United States over the next two years.
• Allow small business to immediately write off up to $250,000 in spending for new equipment and property through the end of 2009. The stimulus package enacted earlier this year provided for the $250,000 investment expensing limit only through the end of this year.
• Eliminate capital gains taxes on investments in small businesses.
• Make $25 billion immediately available for the construction and repair of roads, bridges, schools and other infrastructure.
• Make $50 billion in loan guarantees available and keep other options open to help U.S. automobile manufacturers retool and develop a new generation of fuel efficient cars. Congress has made $25 billion available.
• Provide a permanent tax cut of $500 for most individual workers and $1,000 for families. Eliminate taxes for seniors making up to $50,000. The tax cuts would be expedited through refunds based on 2007 tax returns.
• Extend unemployment insurance for long-term jobless workers who have exhausted their benefits. Temporarily suspend taxes on those benefits.
• Temporarily allow penalty-free withdrawals of 15 percent from tax-preferred retirement accounts up to $10,000.
• Suspend rules requiring retirees to begin withdrawing from retirement accounts six months after they reach the age of 70.
• Increase home heating cost aid.
• Instruct the Secretaries of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to use their existing authority to more aggressively modify the terms of mortgages.
• Reform the bankruptcy code to assist homeowners and remove legal impediments to encouraging more mortgage restructuring.
• Implement a 90 day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners making good faith efforts to pay their debt.
• Provide $25 billion to states to help them cope with the economic downturn without having to raise property taxes or cut vital services.
• Provide a 10 percent refundable tax credit for mortgage interest to taxpayers who do not itemize their returns.

Source: EconomicTimes

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