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.