Senators join opposition to tax break; committee follows House in voting to kill minority tax certificate program.

Broadcasting & Cable, March, 1995 by Stern, Christopher

Viacom's plans to sell its cable systems to an African-American businessman for $2.3 billion appear to be on the rocks after a Senate committee voted to kill an FCC tax break that would benefit Viacom. The Senate Finance Committee last Wednesday voted to end the FCC's minority tax certificate program, which for 17 years has been the cornerstone of the agency's affirmative action policies.

The program allows companies that sell a broadcast or cable property to a minority to defer capital gains taxes on the sale. A tax certificate could be worth as much as $600 million to Viacom, which plans to sell its cable systems to Frank Washington, a minority businessman based in California. The Finance Committee followed the House's lead in voting to end the...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.