Bailout bill includes tax break for NASCAR racetracks

[Blue_Tires]

WASHINGTON -- A tax break for NASCAR racetracks and other motor-sports facilities is among the "sweeteners" tucked inside a 450-page financial-services bailout bill to make the package more palatable to lawmakers.

The Senate-passed bill includes an array of so-called "tax extenders." One extends for two years a tax policy that had been allowed to expire in December that lets motor-sports facilities be treated the same as amusement parks and other entertainment complexes for tax purposes.

That allowed them to write off their capital investments over a seven-year period. The motor sports industry feared that without a specific legal clarification, motor-sports facilities would be required to depreciate their capital over 15 years or longer because of a recent Internal Revenue Service inquiry into the matter. That would make repaved tracks and new concession stands more expensive in the short term.

It isn't a new tax break, rather the way tax law historically has been interpreted, said Lauri Wilks, the vice president of communications for Speedway Motorsports, which owns the NASCAR tracks in Fort Worth, Texas; Sonoma, Calif.; Concord, N.C.; and elsewhere.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/711014.html

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Plums like this is what helped the bill go through...No coincidence that congresscritters from Calif., N.Y. and N.C. brought this to the forefront -- all three states have some of the most famous racetracks in the world...

[billyoc]

1. one trillionth of the budget.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. It's only a $3.10 tax break?

Who knew?

[navarth]

2. f**king NASCAR?? please tell me you're kidding

(deep breath)

Alec Baldwin CALLED IT on Bill Maher's show last night. SHAME on any of these bastards that brought in 140 billion more in pork and attached it to this bill. Anybody that voted for this based on pork needs to be gone next election.

How much pork, I wonder, was attached to the auto maker's bailout?

But fucking nascar??? This is Reagan's Great Victory. The Dumbing of America has been a smashing success.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. NASCAR is an important Gov't. symbol.

It represents how the government goes 'round and 'round and 'round in circles for a really long time until eventually there are enough wrecks to stop it or not enough daylight to watch it.

[Fumesucker]

6. I'm not a NASCAR fan .. but..

I know there are quite a few fans on DU..

You might want to be a bit more cautious who you are insulting.

[navarth]

7. not worried

I'd be glad to talk to them. I have friends who are into that crap. I tell them this:

I'm glad you're in there, because we need intelligent people hanging around those knuckleheads. Sorry to offend you, but whether you like it or not, Nascar represents ignorant religious rednecks wasting gasoline. And it wasn't me who made it that way.

[CrispyQ]

4. People in the south are waiting in line for hours to purchase gas,

but we're going to give a tax break to an organization that wastes it driving in ciricles?

I've almost reached the point where I have to laugh when I read this shit or I'll go fucking postal!!!