McCain to outline tax relief for seniors

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain will unveil proposals Tuesday aimed at helping Americans cope with a sharp plunge in the stock market, including tax relief for senior investors.

The proposals, to be outlined by McCain in Pennsylvania, come as the Arizona senator tries to close a gap with Democrat Barack Obama, who leads in national polls and in several key states with three weeks to go until election day on November 4.

McCain economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin told Reuters that McCain would outline an estimated $52.5 billion in new proposals.

McCain will propose that seniors pay a maximum tax rate of 10 percent on money they withdraw from IRAs and 401(k) retirement plans in 2009 and 2010, instead of paying the current higher tax rate, the adviser said. It would cost $36 billion.

This is in addition to a plan he announced last week, and which he will repeat Tuesday, to give investors temporary relief from a rule forcing them to begin withdrawing from their 401(k) and IRA plans once they reach the age of 70-1/2.

Many older Americans have seen their retirement accounts devastated in the past couple of weeks due to the stock market crash.

Holtz-Eakin said McCain will also propose relief for Americans who are "aiming toward retirement" and were counting on investment income to send their children to college or pay the mortgage.

Internal Revenue Service rules say Americans can only deduct $3,000 in stock losses in any given year. McCain would expand that deduction to $15,000 a year for the tax years 2008 and 2009.

"These are not normal times," Holtz-Eakin said. "It has to be someone who was in such duress that they had to sell it at a huge loss. We think that's a good target, to give them that relief."

'CASH INTO THE HANDS OF PEOPLE'

McCain for two years would cut the capital gains tax on stock profits in half, from 15 percent now on stocks held a year or longer to 7.5 percent -- a $10 billion proposal.

In a proposal aimed at helping Americans who have been laid off from their jobs, McCain would suspend the tax on unemployment insurance benefits in 2008 and 2009.

This would apply to about 3.6 million Americans and cost about $6.5 billion.

Holtz-Eakin said the aim is to help keep money in the hands of people to improve the overall health of the U.S. economy.

"We're putting a lot of cash into the hands of people because that's the near-term duress," he said. "What businesses are looking for right now are customers," he said.