Finance adds tax breaks for wind, NASCAR to extenders package

The Senate Finance Committee added several tax breaks into a package extending expired provision, even before the start of Thursday’s markup of the measure.

{mosads}Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) inserted a tax credit for the wind industry, tax breaks for NASCAR track owners and film production, and a provision that allows companies to shift assets among foreign subsidiaries without paying taxes.

In all, Wyden added seven incentives to the package that he unveiled on Tuesday with the committee’s top Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), adding billions of dollars on to the measure’s original $67 billion price tag.

The original package didn’t revive about a dozen of the more than 50 incentives that had expired at the end of last year.

Even with Wyden’s changes to the package, the Finance panel still has dozens of amendments to sift through on Thursday, though not all will receive a vote.

Wyden, at the start of the markup, said, “this will be the last tax extenders bill the Committee takes up as long as I’m chairman.”

But adding back the tax incentive for foreign subsidiaries also drew howls from the left.

“The Senate Finance Committee squandered a unique opportunity to stand with regular taxpayers who can’t marshal armies of lawyers and lobbyists to bend the tax code to their whim,” said Dan Smith of U.S. PIRG. “Unfortunately, they caved to special interest pressure.”