House Passes Tax Cut Retaining Lower Rates

WASHINGTON -- The House voted Thursday to make sure investors hang on to lowered tax rates on capital gains and dividends for an extra two years, The Associated Press reported.

Voting mostly along party lines, the House passed a $56 billion, five-year package of tax cuts that retains reduced tax rates for capital gains and dividends in 2009 and 2010. The vote was 234-197.

Republicans said their record of tax cutting revitalized a sluggish economy, and the White House praised the bill.

"These extensions are necessary to provide certainty for investors and businesses and are essential to sustaining long-term economic growth," the president's budget office said in a statement.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 12/8/05