Tax planning

The holidays ahead signal the start of serious tax season preparation for most tax preparers. Staffing, training, testing new software and technology, and becoming proficient on the latest tax law changes are at the top of most preparers' to-do lists.

The past year saw a number of unusual sales and use tax laws enacted in a number of states.

The prospect of the enactment of a value-added tax in the United States is getting closer – five years and counting, according to a Tax Governance Institute survey.

President Obama described a series of proposals aimed at encouraging companies to add more jobs, including tax cuts for small businesses.

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has introduced a bill that would make permanent a number of education-related tax relief measures dating back to 2001, when he was committee chairman, and increase others.

Large corporations have dominated the use of the research tax credit, with 549 corporations with receipts of $1 billion or more claiming over half of the $6 billion of net credits in 2005, the most recent year available, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office.

Fifty-seven percent of the senior business executives surveyed by KPMG’s Tax Governance Institute expect some type of value-added tax to be introduced in the U.S. within five years, and 18 percent anticipate a VAT within 10 years.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced legislation that would impose a tax on Wall Street securities transactions.

The White House convened a jobs summit in which President Obama heard from business and union leaders about various proposals for reducing unemployment, including tax incentives for job creation.

The House voted to set the inheritance tax at 45 percent permanently for estates larger than $3.5 million.

Leaders of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship have introduced legislation that would make permanent the $250,000 Section 179 expensing limits for small businesses created under the Recovery Act.

Businesses will have to act soon on a bevy of tax breaks before they expire at the end of the year.

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The tax subcommittee of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board has decided to postpone its report outlining tax reform plans for the White House after being inundated with suggestions.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has introduced a bill that would impose a temporary war surtax beginning in 2011 to pay for the war in Afghanistan.

The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit helped spur a 10.1 percent jump in sales of existing homes in October.

CCH and Grant Thornton have teamed up to produce IFRS Tax Manager, an online guide to International Financial Reporting Standards, aimed at helping tax, audit and accounting professionals comply with tax accounting and reporting standards under IFRS.

CCH Small Firm Services has begun shipping its ATX and TaxWise lines of software for tax year 2009, with links to tax research from CCH.

It’s getting near the end of the year, and ’tis the season to be compiling lists.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced the Senate’s version of the health care reform bill, which includes a new 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery.