HIGHLIGHTS OF TAX BILL •Investment income. Would extend for two years, from 2009 through the end of 2010, a maximum tax of 15% on capital gains and dividend income. Cost: $20.6 billion over five years. •Alternative minimum tax. Would extend for one year, through 2006, AMT exemptions for upper middle-income taxpayers. Ensures the AMT doesn't erode eligibility for several tax credits, including the dependent care credit. Cost: $33.9 billion over five years. •Small business investment. Extends two years, through the end of 2009, a tax cut letting small businesses write off up to $100,000 in investments in equipment and other depreciable assets. Cost: $7.3 billion over five years. •Roth IRAs. Eliminates, starting in 2010, the $100,000 income limitations on converting traditional retirement accounts to Roth IRAs. Money shifted to Roth IRAs would be taxed when converted, raising funds in the short term, but would be withdrawn tax-free at retirement at a significant long-term revenue loss. Revenue raised: $6.4 billion over 10 years. •Unearned minor income. Increases the age, from 14 to 18, in which non-wage income for most minors is taxed as if it were the parent's income. Revenue raised: $2.1 billion over 10 years. •Overseas corporate income. Repeals a 2004 tax provision that "grandfathered" certain overseas contracts, allowing companies with those contracts to receive some of the manufacturing tax benefit. The European Union calls this an illegal U.S. trade subsidy and has threatened trade sanctions on the U.S. in retaliation. Revenue raised: $467 million over five years.

The five-year, $70 billion package pales compared with major tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, which slashed a broader range of taxes by nearly $1.7 trillion over 10 years. Most of the "cuts" are in the form of preventing tax increases.

Even so, as public discontent grows over the war in Iraq and high gasoline prices six months before congressional elections, President Bush and his fellow Republicans are turning to their base issue of tax cuts, which is popular with voters.

The House approved the package Wednesday, 244-185, with two main elements: an extension of the 15% tax rates on capital gains and dividends for two years, through 2010, and preventing the alternative minimum tax (AMT) from increasing the levies on 15.5 million taxpayers.

Treasury Secretary John Snow said the investment tax cuts have helped create three straight years of rising business investment. "A continuation of strong investment will lead to ongoing economic expansion, job creation and higher standards of living for all Americans," he said.

The big winners under the deal:

• Investors who would continue to pay a 15% rate on capital gains and most dividends through 2010, and the businesses in which they invest. "People with capital don't just look at today or tomorrow. They look at one year or five years or 10 years down the road," said Dan Mitchell of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

• Middle-income taxpayers threatened this year by the AMT, a parallel tax system originally created in 1969 to prevent the rich from paying no taxes. Each year, it threatens to ensnare millions of less wealthy taxpayers because it was not indexed for inflation. Those threatened generally earn more than $160,000 a year.

• Upper-income savers, who could join those less wealthy and roll over part of their traditional individual retirement accounts into Roth IRAs, then take the money tax-free at retirement.

Some analysts say the plan favors the rich. An analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that millionaires would save an average of $42,000, while people earning less than $50,000 would save less than $50.

"Bush's tax plan offers next to nothing to average Americans, while giving away the store to multimillionaires," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The Senate is scheduled to give final approval to the package today.

The AMT patch is for one year only. Millions of middle-income taxpayers will face the same threat when they pay their taxes for 2007. "The current fix has just postponed the needed cure for another year," says Clint Stretch, director of tax policy for Deloitte Tax.

The deal leaves out tax breaks for college tuition, teachers who buy school supplies and businesses that invest in research and development. They could be included in a second, roughly $20 billion package of tax cuts later this year, bringing total tax cuts to $90 billion. That's more than twice the $40 billion in budget cuts passed in February to reduce the deficit.

Most of the tax cuts approved during Bush's first term don't expire until 2011. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending them through 2016 would cost $1.5 trillion.