WASHINGTON - The House voted yesterday to lower taxes for some married couples, part of an election-year push to lock in some of President Bush's most popular tax cuts.
The bill, passed 323-95, would permanently change three parts of tax law that cause some married couples to pay higher taxes than they would as single individuals and reduce their taxes $105 billion over the next decade. Some married couples face a tax increase next year if the changes expire as scheduled.
The House voted 226-189 to reject a Democratic fix to the so-called marriage penalty. That version, expected to reduce taxes on some couples about $206 billion over the next decade, would have kept about 13 million couples from losing part or all of their tax cuts to the alternative minimum tax, a levy originally intended to keep wealthy individuals from sheltering their income but increasingly trapping middle-income families.
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The Associated Press
