SEMA joined nearly 1,300 trade associations, companies and other organizations in signing a letter to members of the House and Senate urging them to pass dozens of expired tax cuts during the November/December lame-duck session of Congress. The “extenders” legislation (S. 3793) includes more than $17 billion in business tax relief, including a renewal of the research and development (R&D) credit along with an extension of the state and local sales tax deduction. SEMA has pursued passage of the tax extensions as a top legislative priority throughout 2010.
The R&D tax credit lapsed on December 31, 2009, marking the 14th time it had expired since being enacted into law in 1981. For the past year, SEMA has joined more than 100 associations and companies within the R&D Credit Coalition urging Congress to make the credit permanent (or for as long as possible given current budget constraints). The credit offsets costs for companies investing time and money in new technologies and is applicable to both in-house and outside research within the United States.
The letter to Congress notes that extending the provisions by the end of the year and through at least 2011 “is of the utmost importance to all of us and to the health of the U.S. economy. Expiration of many of these provisions has already caused job losses, and the uncertainty around their extension will lead to further dislocations just as the fragile economic recovery is beginning.”
For more information, contact Stuart Gosswein.