Tax

Almost nine full years have passed since the $250,000/$500,000 exclusion of gain on the sale of a principal residence first became available. Little did many of us imagine how much would change in nine years.While the basic sale-of-a-principal-residence provision has remained the same, except for some minor congressional tinkering, the world in which it lives has not. The real estate "boom," capital gains rate reduction, subsequent rulings and other developments have all played a part in making this a particularly dynamic area of tax planning. A review of recent trends and developments over the past year is especially illuminating.

Both houses of Congress reached final agreement on a $70 billion package of tax cuts that will be spread over the next five years.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced that President Bush has nominated Treasury official Eric Solomon to be the department's assistant secretary for tax policy, filling a post that has been vacant since February 2004.

New York's Attorney General accused higher-ups at H&R Block of being aware that the tax prep giant's Express IRA accounts would be money losers for many of the same clients the chain was targeting to buy the retirement plans.

Creative Solutions, a unit of Thomson Tax & Accounting, has acquired the assets of Dunphy Systems, a Columbus, Ohio-based publisher and marketer of tax software.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson announced that the 2007 Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant application process is now open. The grant program is in its eighth year and continues to expand.

Organizations that provide seller-funded down-payment assistance to home buyers do not qualify as tax-exempt charities, the Internal Revenue Service said in a ruling last week.

Charles W. McClure, a Colorado tax preparer, pleaded guilty to p reparing a false income tax return and will face up to a three-year jail term, a $100,000 fine and restitution of up to $12,516.

With the House Ways and Means Committee due to hold hearings on corporate tax reform next week, the Tax Foundation recently released a comparison of the U.S. corporate tax system to other countries around the world.

Both houses of Congress appear to have reached a deal on a $70 billion package of tax cuts, according to published reports.