More on TARP

Apart from the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the bill before the Senate includes:

Extensions of the AMT patch, tax deductions on state and local sales taxes, tuition, teacher expenses and real property taxes and tax credits for business research and new market investors

Energy tax credits and incentives to encourage wind and refined coal production, new biomass facilities, wave and tide electricity generators, solar energy property improvements, CO2 capturing, plug-in electric drive vehicles, idling reduction units on truck engines, cellulosic biofuels ethanol production, energy efficient houses, offices, dishwashers, clothes washers and refrigerators, and fringe benefits for employees commuting by bicycle.

A requirement for private insurance plans to offer mental health benefits on par with medical-surgical benefits
Tax relief provisions for victims of this summer's Midwestern floods, and Hurricane Ike

Freezing of deductions for sale and exchange of oil and natural gas, mandatory basis reporting by brokers for transactions involving publicly traded securities and an extension of the oil spill tax


But it also extends the following tax provisions:

* Economic development credit to American Samoan businesses
* $10,000 tax credit for training of mine rescue team members
* 50% immediate expensing for extra underground mine safety equipment
* Tax credit for businesses with employees from an Indian reservation
* Accelerated depreciation for property used mostly on an Indian reservation
* 50% tax credit for some expenditures on maintaining railroad tracks
* 7-year recovery period for motorsports racetrack property
* Expensing of cleaning up "brownfield" contaminated sites
* Enhanced deductions for businesses donating computers and books to schools, and for food donations
* Deduction for income from domestic production in Puerto Rico
* Tax credit for employees in Hurricane Katrina disaster area
* Tax incentives for investments in poor neighborhoods in D.C.
* Increased rehabilitation credit for buildings in Gulf area
* Reduction of import duties on some imported wool fabrics, transfers other duties to Wool Trust Fund to promote competitiveness of American wool
* Special expensing rules for film and TV productions

And there's more:

* Increasing cover of rum excise tax revenues to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
* Making it easier for film and TV companies to use deduction for domestic production
* Exempting children's wooden arrows from excise tax
* Income averaging for Exxon Valdez litigants for tax purposes