Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Congress passed legislation expanding an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, extending unemployment benefits and providing tax refunds to money-losing companies.

The House approved the measure today on a 403-12 vote, sending it to President :  All 12 House members voting against the bill were Republicans. The Senate passed the bill 98-0 yesterday after weeks of delays.

Estimated to funnel $45 billion into the economy this year, the legislation is the first major expansion of provisions in February’s economic stimulus package. The bill would extend until April 30 the tax credit for first-time homebuyers that would otherwise expire at the end of this month.

The jobless would get as many as 20 additional weeks of unemployment assistance. Companies would be given expanded ability to apply losses to previous years’ income, allowing them to qualify this year for $33 billion in tax refunds, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation.

“The homebuyers’ credit has helped pave the way for stabilization in the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices,” said Representative, a Washington Democrat. “Its extension will continue to make homeownership more affordable and bring confidence to a housing market and economy that remain fragile.”

U.S. unemployment is projected to average 9.85 percent next year, according to the median estimate in an October survey of economists by Bloomberg News. Lawmakers are considering whether to extend other elements of the stimulus package, including subsidies to help unemployed people buy health insurance.

More than 1.4 million Americans have claimed the homebuyer credit at a cost so far of about $10 billion, according to the Treasury Department.

The legislation approved today would allow the credit for couples earning up to $225,000 a year and individuals earning up to $125,000. That’s up from the current $75,000 limit for individuals and $150,000 for couples.

It would allow homebuyers who have owned their residence for at least five years to receive a $6,500 credit. Those who sell their new home or no longer use it as their main residence within three years would have to repay the credit. Homes worth more than $800,000 wouldn’t be eligible.

A Nov. 3 Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report said most of those who claim the credit would have bought homes without the program. It estimated the initiative spurred 200,000 home sales that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred.

Extending the credit to those who already own homes won’t reduce the excess inventory of housing blamed for the slump because “every buyer taking advantage of the move-up credit would necessarily be a seller,” Goldman Sachs said. It said the plan may increase housing prices by 1 percent because “sellers are likely to incorporate a fraction of the credit amount in their sale prices.”

House Majority Leader, a Maryland Democrat, called the jobless provision “an investment that pays off for all of us” because “money provided by unemployment insurance quickly goes into necessities and boosts local economies.”

The legislation would provide 14 additional weeks of unemployment benefits in all states, plus another six weeks in those with jobless rates topping 8.5 percent. About 1.9 million Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of this year without the bill, the Labor Department said.

Representative a Texas Republican, said the provision allowing tax refunds for companies would provide “an immediate cash infusion to struggling businesses” and “free up additional payroll to help get more Americans back to work.”

Representative a Texas Democrat, criticized the provision as a “corporate giveaway” to “those with good lobbyists.” If it were a good idea, he said, why not offer it “to workers who have lost their jobs and give them back some of the taxes that they paid when they had a job?”

The bill would not add to the federal budget deficit, according to congressional estimates, in part because it would be financed by delaying until 2018 a tax break for multinational corporations related to taxes they pay abroad. The legislation would also extend a 0.2 percent employer payroll surtax that otherwise would have expired at the end of the year.

That provision drew complaints from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and other business groups that said in a letter it “would increase the tax burden on employers just as they are deciding whether to add employees in 2010 and 2011.”

The bill is H.R. 3548.

To contact the reporter on this story: :in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net