TaxAlmanac:Featured article/February 4, 2009

From TaxAlmanac

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Congress has passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and President Obama signed the bill into law on February 17, 2009.

United States Congress

The final recovery and reinvestment plan contained approximately $287 billion in tax cuts for families and businesses, with a particular focus on creating jobs in the green energy, highway, and school building sectors. The tax cuts included a $400‐per‐worker tax credit – known as Making Work Pay credit – to put cash in the hands of America’s working families in the next few months. Additional Finance Committee provisions included a $14.4 billion measure providing a one‐time, $250 payment to seniors, veterans, and retirees, and approximately $177 billion more in investments to create jobs in health information technology, to help out‐of‐work Americans keep their health care coverage and find new employment, and to give aid to struggling state economies. The legislation also included a major expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance to help American firms avoid layoffs due to international competition, and to help workers negatively affected by trade stay on their financial feet and retrain for new, good‐paying jobs here at home.