Governor Baker, House Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Rosenberg Announce Agreement to Preserve Tax Break for Working Families

Governor Baker, House Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Rosenberg Announce Agreement to Preserve Tax Break for Working Families BOSTON – Today, Governor Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Stan Rosenberg announced an agreement to preserve the increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit that was part of the legislature’s budget while maintaining the FAS-109 tax deduction, which was eliminated in the budget.  Under the compromise, FAS-109 implementation would be delayed for five years but the time a company can claim its overall deduction will be increased from seven to 30 years. The FAS-109 agreement funds the increase of the Earned Income Tax Credit to 23% as originally proposed by the legislature’s budget conference committee. The Governor, House Speaker and Senate President issued the following statements regarding the agreement:    “We all agree that expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit is a critical tool to provide tax relief to over 400,000 low income individuals and working families and my administration believes in providing a stable, competitive business climate to encourage economic development across the Commonwealth,”said Governor Baker. “In that effort, we have reached a joint compromise to extend the delay of the FAS-109 deduction implementation for five years and extend the length of the deduction’s life from seven to 30 years, minimizing the annual revenue impact on the state budget.  I am pleased the legislature is ready to act on these new parameters for the FAS-109 deduction by the end of July.” "I am proud to stand with Governor Baker and Senate President Rosenberg in supporting the EITC, a vital measure that provides much needed relief to the Commonwealth's families, without imposing any new taxes or fees and overburdening members of the business community," said House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo. "This agreement takes an important step in addressing income inequality in our state.  As one of  the original co-authors of the state Earned Income Tax Credit I am pleased we have increased the credit by more than 50 percent to help the hard working families of the Commonwealth," said Senate President Stan Rosenberg.  "I look forward to working with the House and the Governor to increase the EITC to our initial target of 30 percent of the federal credit."