Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
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| Long title | An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 104 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2002. |
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| Acronyms (colloquial) | EGTRRA |
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| Public law | Public Law 107-16 |
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| Major amendments | |
| Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 | |
The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (Pub.L. 107–16, 115 Stat. 38, June 7, 2001) was a sweeping piece of tax legislation in the United States passed by the 107th Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. It is commonly known by its abbreviation EGTRRA, often pronounced "egg-tra" or "egg-terra", and sometimes also known simply as the 2001 Act (especially where the context of a discussion is clearly about taxes), but is more commonly referred to as one of the two "Bush tax cuts".
The Act made significant changes in several areas of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, including income tax rates, estate and gift tax exclusions, and qualified and retirement plan rules. In general, the Act lowered tax rates and simplified retirement and qualified plan rules such as for individual retirement accounts, 401(k) plans, 403(b), and pension plans. The changes were so large and numerous that many books and analysis papers were published regarding the changes and how to best take advantage of them. All the 2001 tax cuts were set to expire at the end of 2010 when Congress extended them.
Many of the tax reductions in EGTRRA were designed to be phased in over a period of up to 9 years. Many of these slow phase-ins were accelerated by the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA), which removed the waiting periods for many of EGTRRA's changes.
A report published by researchers with the Heritage Foundation claimed that the tax cuts would result in the complete elimination of the U.S. national debt by fiscal year 2010.
One of the most notable characteristics of EGTRRA is that its provisions were designed to sunset (or revert to the provisions that were in effect before it was passed) on January 1, 2011 (that is, for tax years, plan years, and limitation years that begin after December 31, 2010. After a two-year extension by the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, the Bush era rates for taxpayers making less than $400,000 per year ($450,000 for married couples) were ultimately made permanent by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. The sunset provision allowed EGTRRA to sidestep the Byrd Rule, a Senate rule that amends the Congressional Budget Act to allow Senators to block a piece of legislation if it purports a significant increase in the federal deficit beyond ten years. The sunset allowed the bill to stay within the letter of the PAYGO law while removing nearly $700 billion from amounts that would have triggered PAYGO sequestration.
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