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Legislative Updates Section |
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NFDMA needs you to become a political
advocate. We need your voice to ensure
that public policy is established and
legislation is passed to positively impact
our industry and community. Join us for the
2012 NFDMA Advocacy Summit held in
Washington, DC on March 7-9, 2012 at the
Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. Join us as we
combine our voice with NFDA, CANA, KAVOD,
OGR and SIFH to share important information
with Members of Congress in several areas
including veteran’s affairs, Social Security
and life insurance. Our voice is much
stronger when we speak united and no matter
what governmental hurdle our industry faces,
there are only two tools to success:
persuasion and power through political
advocacy. Save the date and join us in
Washington, DC.
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Codification of SSI Irrevocable
Funeral/Burial Trust Exemption. (H.R. 935/
Senate bill pending introduction) -
Funeral Directors are working closely with
our House and potential Senate sponsors to
devise a strategy to get this bill passed
into law this year. Rep. Steve Southerland
(R-FL), the primary sponsor of the bill, is
really working hard to help us secure more
co-sponsors and get this bill passed.
Senator Snowe (R-ME) will be introducing the
Senate version with several co-sponsors in
the next week or two. Passage of these bills
continues to be a high priority for the
funeral industry. Members can send an e-mail
to their members of Congress via
Congress-at-a-Click, urging them to
co-sponsor and actively support passage of
H.R. 935.
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Bereaved Consumer’s Bill of Rights Act of
2011 (H.R. 900) - Rep. Rush and 5
co-sponsors have again introduced the
Bereaved Consumers bill of Rights Act with
only one change from last year’s bill The
change would exempt all non-profit religious
cemeteries owned, operated and managed
exclusively by them and not by any
for-profit funeral service company. The
latter would still be covered by the bill.
NFDA is working to get a Senate version
introduced and passed so we have a better
chance of the bill becoming law this year.
Members can send an e-mail to their members
of Congress via Congress-at-a-Click, urging
them to co-sponsor and actively support
passage of H.R. 900.
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Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection
and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy
Overpayments Act of 2011 (H.H. 4) -
After much debate, the Senate finally passed
the House bill which was then sent to the
President on April 6th for signature. To
date, the President has not signed the bill
but is expected to sign it this week. The
bill will repeal the onerous provision in
the new health care law that would require
all businesses to issue a Form 1099 to all
vendors from whom they purchased more than
$600 in services or merchandise during the
year. It would have cost funeral homes
thousands of dollars to comply with this
requirement.
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Indigent Funeral Expense Reimbursement
Act of 2011 (H.R. 1033) – Again this
year, Rep. Broun (R-GA) has introduced
legislation, to provide an above the line
tax credit to funeral homes for unreimbursed
expenses for providing funeral and/or burial
services and merchandise for indigents. The
term indigent is defined by state law and
the credit is capped at $3,000. With state
and local funding for these services being
reduced or eliminated, the funeral industry
is seeking legislative tax relief for
funeral homes who voluntarily provide these
services to their communities generally at
the request of state or local officials.
Members can send an e-mail to their members
of Congress via Congress-at-a-Click, urging
them to co-sponsor and actively support
passage of H.R. 1033.
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Estate Tax (no bill yet) - Members of
the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition
have begun efforts to advocate that Congress
make permanent the current estate tax law
that expires at the end of 2012. At that
time, the estate tax will revert back to the
2001 levels of a $1million ($2million per
couple) exclusion and a 55% rate. The
exclusion is not indexed for inflation. The
current law sets the exclusion at $5 million
($10 million for a couple) and a tax rate
for amounts above that of 35%. This
exclusion is indexed for inflation and a
stepped-up basis is included as well. While
this issue has not matured yet, we have
begun the process of letting members of
Congress know our position so that when it
does, they will know where NFDA and NFDMA
stand. Reprinted by permission of John
Finch, Jr., NFDA
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