Senate Wants Car-Buyer Tax Break in Economic Recovery Program
By John O'Dell February 4, 2009
The Senate has added a small car-buying incentive
to the now $900-billion economic stimulus plan.
It would allow new-car buyers to claim federal income tax deductions for sales taxes and interest payments on auto loans (the latter only works, of course, if you don't avail yourself of one of the zero-percent financing deals many automakers are offering).
It isn't enough to make people who weren't in the market suddenly queue up at their local car dealerships. It would be a tax break for most car buyers of less than $1,000 the first year. But every little bit helps.
And because hybrids, clean diesels and the plug-in hybrids and other alternative fuel cars we're expecting to see in coming years all cost more than conventionally powered cars and trucks, it could help even more in easing the pocketbook pain of becoming a greener motorist.
Another plus, if the measure stays in the bill after the House gets through with it and the president signs it, is that instead of being handed over to corporate interests, the money from the tax deductions would go directly into consumers' pockets.
More details, and opinions, are available on our sister bogs, Edmunds AutoObserver and Inside Line's Straightline.
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Stuff like this bugs me. Encouraging people to spend money, in the hopes of economic stimulation, is questionable. Not specifying that they stimulate the US economy is wrong. US tax dollars should not stimulate the foreign auto manufacturers.
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