Where to Focus YOUR Lobbying Efforts
In our blog earlier this month we included legislative contact information so that you could let your Senators and Congressmen know how important you feel it is to extend the taxable income exclusion for forgiven debt on your primary residence. That exclusion was originally part of a tax relief package begun in the Bush era and continued through 12-31-13. Prior to the November elections, the U.S. Senate Finance Subcommittee agreed upon and passed onto the entire Senate for a vote a measure that would extend those expired tax cuts for two years, i.e., the 2014 & 2015 tax years. Harry Reid and the temporarily Democrat controlled Senate did in fact pass the measure only to have it rejected by the Democrat in the White House who had previously expressed support for the measure. While President Obama’s stated reason for bouncing the measure back to Harry Reid was to include more tax relief for the poor, there is another explanation that I came across in the Editorial Section of the Virginian Pilot this morning (12-8-14).
In the wake of one of the worst electoral losses as a party since WWII, the Democrats have been looking for a scapegoat, and according to Charles Krauthammer :
I found the entire article fascinating but was shocked to see the political connection to the potentially devastating burden of taxing phantom income to our short sale clients. It appears that the letters that have been written to the legislators have worked but now those letters need to be copied to the White House!
