Primed for Mark-Up by Ways and Means, Perhaps Next Week The first order of business, now that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) has introduced H.R. 3970, the long-awaited Tax Reduction and Reform Act of 2007, are the one-year provisions for an AMT hold-harmless patch for nonrefundable personal credits and an extension of popular tax credits and deductions. Ways and Means will take up these provisions and their offsets as a separate bill for mark-up perhaps as early as next week. A package consisting of the patch and extenders provisions costs an estimated $68.5 billion over ten years, according to a bill summary published by the committee. The summary indicates that the cost of the patch is $47.14 billion over 10 years; the various extenders cost $21 billlion. The package would be paid for in part by a $25.66 billion provision closing the so-called carried interest loophole for fund managers and a $22.64 billion plan to tax the deferred compensation plans of offshore hedge funds. Taken together, these two elements would come very close to offsetting the patch. It is not yet clear how the remainder of the package will be offset.