House to decide on levy of 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses

2009-03-19 15:49:05 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - Business News)

The House of Representatives will vote on Thursday regarding a bill that would place a mandatory 90 percent tax on bonuses paid out to employees with a family income of $250,000

Boston, Massachusetts (CaymanMama.com) — The House of Representatives will vote on Thursday regarding a bill that would place a mandatory 90 percent tax on bonuses paid out to employees with a family income of $250,000 or above at companies that collected at least $5 billion in government rescue funds.

“We figured that the local and state governments would take care of the other 10 percent,” said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel said the levy would apply to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among other mortgage companies, and would exclude community banks and other smaller business that collected less bailout money.

According to the Associated Press, “Edward Liddy, who was brought in last year by the government to run AIG, told a House subcommittee Wednesday that the company was contractually obligated to pay the bonuses but that some of the recipients have begun returning all or part of them.”

Liddy testified on Tuesday that he “asked those who have received retention payments in excess of $100,000 or more to return at least half of those payments.” Some employees have “already stepped forward and returned 100 percent,” he added.

Lawmakers got into action after inforamtion leaked out by the government about the bonuses over the weekend. Bills were hastily drawn up in both the House and Senate to enforce heavy new taxes on them.

House to decide on levy of 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses

Comments

Articles

Other News / Press Releases

Archives

Business

House to decide on levy of 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses

Comments

Articles

Other News / Press Releases

News Tags

Archives