Washington Report: Estate Tax Relief still possible
Congress has passed and the President has signed into law a federal debt ceiling increase. The law includes a section that establishes a statutory pay-go regime for maintaining a balanced budget. “Pay-go” requires that any spending increase or tax relief must be offset with tax increases or spending cuts. Congress has been [...]
Washington Report: Jobs Bill
The Senate is scheduled to take up a “jobs” bill upon its return from the Presidents’ Day week-long break. Initially, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) circulated a bi-partisan draft bill, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act. The draft is 362 pages long and contains well over a hundred [...]
Washington Report: Clean air and you
On Jan. 6, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to strengthen the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone. The EPA has said it will issue final standards by August 31, 2010.
Ground-level ozone, in the earth’s lower atmosphere, is considered “bad.” It is not usually emitted directly into the air. It [...]
Washington Report: Estate Tax Repealed
At the end of last year, the Senate did not go along with a House-passed bill to freeze permanently the estate tax top marginal rate at 45 percent and the individual exemption of $3.5 million. As a result, as of Jan. 1, 2010, the estate tax is repealed. Unfortunately, on Jan. 1, 2011, the [...]
Washington Report: Expired deductions and credits
The Senate did not go along with a House-passed bill to extend a variety of expiring tax credits and deductions. As a result, as of Jan. 1, 2010, they expired. Among them was a provision to extend a temporary provision to allow leasehold improvements and improvements to retailer-owned buildings to be depreciated over [...]
Washington Report: Payroll taxes and healthcare reform
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-N.V.) health-care reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) introduces a new tax increase to pay for reform. The bill includes an increase in a portion (the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust portion) of the federal payroll tax known as FICA. The bill would increase [...]
Washington Report: Inflation and IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that effective Jan. 1, 2010, the limitation for defined contribution plan contributions remains unchanged for 2010 at $49,000. The limitation on the annual benefit under a defined benefit plan remains unchanged at $195,000. The limitation regarding simple retirement account contributions remains unchanged at $11,500. The [...]
Washington Report: Estate Tax Relief
Unless Congress takes action, at the stroke of midnight on December 31, the estate tax is repealed. One year later, in 2011, it comes back with a $1 million exemption and a 55 percent top rate. Currently, the temporary top rate is 45 percent and the temporary exemption is $3.5 million.
The House of [...]
Washington Report: Federal unemployment tax act
Congress has decided to snatch a bit of tax relief away from you to pay for the unemployment benefit extension. You may not know it, but your annual Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) payment of 0.8 percent of wages up to $7,000 per employee is actually made up of two parts— a 0. 6 base [...]
Washington Report: Net operating losses
President Barack Obama signed into law an extension and expansion the temporary Net Operating Loss (NOL) relief passed earlier this year. The law passed earlier this year extended the net operating loss carryback period from two to five years for tax years beginning in or ending in 2008 for small businesses with gross receipts of [...]
