Deep dives into tax policy — the laws, proposals, and reforms shaping the tax code, explained without the jargon.
Earlier this year, Congress again failed to repeal the federal estate tax. As many practitioners anticipated (including this blogger), Congress went back to the drawing board to produce a bill which modifies, rather than repeals, the existing tax. The proposed bill would: Reunify the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes. Increase the estate and…
From the Washington Post, an article that suggested that a repeal would hurt the “small rich”…
The Senate failed to garner enough votes to repeal the federal estate tax (again). For more from NPR, click here.
The U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled on a landmark tax incentive case involving the rights of individual states to provide tax breaks to corporations who choose to locate manufacturing and other facilities within the borders of those states. The ruling was viewed as key since almost every state in the country has some sort of dispute…
To make you consider even more tax cuts. Now that Congress has pushed through a $70 million tax bill, some Congressional officials are hoping to reintroduce discussion about a permanent federal estate tax repeal. You can read more here.
A federal court in San Jose, California, gave the IRS permission to ask PayPal Inc. for account information for American taxpayers who have bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards issued by financial institutions over the last ten years in more than 30 countries reputed to be tax havens. This is similar to a summons…
We knew that it had to happen. After IRS warned a church in California that it may lose its charitable status following a sermon critical of the current administration, those to the left and right alike began to scramble in their defense of political activism amongst 501(c)(3) organizations. For organizations with 501(c)(3) status, political campaigning or…
The latest recommendation by the Bush Administration is to make the current tax cuts permanent, while keeping a majority of government programs intact. For a complete overview of the proposed budget, click here.
In addition to the obvious (gas savings), buying a fuel-efficient car can put more money back into your pocket. Congress has finally gotten its act together and is offering tax breaks for certain vehicles for 2006. Beginning in January 2006, those who purchase eligible vehicles will receive a tax credit, as opposed to a tax…
If you’re interested in a comparison of the two tax bills that I blogged about yesterday, you can read a decent paper comparing the two here (it’s a PDF), courtesy of Citizens for Tax Justice.