IRS waste

The Joint Committee on Taxation lists 55, yes 55, tax provisions that expired December 31, 2013.  Their report (PDF) also includes a list of tax provisions expiring in 2014 and future years.  Will Congress renew them all, some of them or none of them? My comments are in italics. Selected expiring provisions:

1. Credit for certain nonbusiness energy property (Residential energy credit – e.g. for a qualifying central air and heat system.)
2. Tax credit for research and experimentation expenses
3. Employer wage credit for activated military reservists
4. Work opportunity tax credit (Did the unemployed all disappear?)
5. Deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers (Perhaps having the schools pay for classroom supplies would be a better choice.)
6. Discharge of indebtedness on principal residence excluded from gross income of individuals
7. Deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses
8. Additional first-year depreciation for 50 percent of basis of qualified property (Failing to renew this one will raise a lot of employers’ income taxes.)
9. Premiums for mortgage insurance deductible as interest that is qualified residence interest (An income tested deduction many did not receive. Some people argue this deduction encourages people to buy more house than they can afford, others say the exact opposite – it allows people to buy a house who would not otherwise qualify.)
10. Deduction for State and local general sales taxes (Shouldn’t this have applied to everyone? Not just to those in a state without an income tax.)
11. 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements, qualified restaurant buildings and improvements, and qualified retail improvements
12. Increase in expensing to $500,000/$2,000,000 and expansion of
    definition of section 179 property (Another one that will cost employers’ a lot of income tax if not renewed.)
13. Tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes

Did we ever need these?

1. Credit for certain expenditures for maintaining railroad tracks (Railroads will not maintain their tracks unless the taxpayers help? Maybe there should be a credit for getting the oil changed in my car.)
2. Credit for energy efficient appliances (manufacturer got this credit)
3. Mine rescue team training credit (Really? Shouldn’t this be a requirement?)
4. Election to expense advanced mine safety equipment (Apparently, the miners have a great lobby. Safety should be part of their mission, not something taxpayers should have to pay them to do.)
5. Three-year depreciation for race horses two years old or younger (Wonder how many “jobs” this created?)
6. Seven-year recovery period for motorsports entertainment complexes (Really? NASCAR needs special tax breaks when it is already the largest sport in the U.S.?)
7. Placed-in-service date for partial expensing of certain refinery property (Subsidies for refiners?)
8. Special expensing rules for certain film and television productions (I guess producers and movie stars are not paid enough.)

Here are the rest:

1. Credit for health insurance costs of eligible individuals (Credit mainly for people who lost their job due to a “trade adjustment” – job shipped offshore – or whose employer went bankrupt and the government has taken over the former employer’s pension obligations.)
2. Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property (non-hydrogen refueling property)
3. Credit for two- or three-wheeled plug-in electric vehicles
4. Second generation biofuel producer credit (formerly cellulosic biofuel producer credit)
5. Incentives for biodiesel and renewable diesel
6. Determination of low-income housing credit rate for credit allocations with respect to non-federally subsidized buildings
7. Beginning-of-construction date for renewable power facilities eligible to claim the electricity production credit or investment credit in lieu of the production credit
8. Treatment of military basic housing allowances for low-income housing credit and for qualified residential rental project exempt facility bonds
9. Credit for production of Indian coal
10. Indian employment tax credit
11. New markets tax credit
12. Credit for construction of new energy efficient homes (Builder got credit.)
13. Qualified zone academy bonds: allocation of bond limitation
14. Parity for exclusion from income for employer-provided mass transit and parking benefits
15. Accelerated depreciation for business property on an Indian reservation
16. Election to accelerate AMT credits in lieu of additional first-year depreciation
17. Special depreciation allowance for second generation biofuel plant property
18. Special rules for contributions of capital gain real property made for conservation
    purposes
19. Enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory
20. Energy efficient commercial buildings deduction (This was small in comparison to the additional cost. I doubt it really incentivized many people to build energy efficient buildings but I am sure those that did liked the credit.)
21. Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico
22. Special rule for sales or dispositions to implement Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) or State electric restructuring policy
23. Modification of tax treatment of certain payments to controlling exempt
    organizations
24. Treatment of certain dividends of regulated investment companies (“RICs”)
25. RIC qualified investment entity treatment under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (“FIRPTA”)
26. Exceptions under subpart F for active financing income
27. Look-through treatment of payments between related controlled foreign corporations under the foreign personal holding company rules
28. 100-percent exclusion for qualified small business stock
29. Basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of  property
30. Reduction in S corporation recognition period for built-in gains tax
31. Empowerment zone tax incentives
32. Incentives for alternative fuel and alternative fuel mixtures (other than liquefied hydrogen)
33. Temporary increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax revenues (from $10.50 to $13.25 per proof gallon) to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
34. American Samoa economic development credit