Jefferson County Requires New Business License Application
Jefferson County Commission passed an act requiring all Licensable Entities to complete a new application to comply with Ordinance 1791. The new format and changes can be confusing. Do you need assistance?
Small Business Health Insurance Credit Available This Year
As described in a previous post, most of the tax provisions of the recent federal healthcare legislation are not effective for several years. One notable exception is the small business health insurance credit. Read full article for details.
Small Business Provisions for the HIRE Act
Two weeks ago President Obama signed into law the HIRE (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment) into law. Drawing less coverage than the highly publicized healthcare legislation, the HIRE Act provides several tax incentives designed to get businesses hiring the unemployed and making capital purchases. Read full blog for the rundown!
Key Provisions on the Healthcare Reform Legislation
Healthcare reform has dominated politics over the past year, and now we have a decent idea of what the final law will include, who will pay, and how. Read the full article to see how it will affect individual and employers and how this new program will be funded.
President Signs Haiti Tax Relief Bill
President Obama on January 22 signed legislation that allows U.S. taxpayers making charitable contributions to Haiti relief programs before March 1, 2010, to claim those donations on their 2009 income tax return. The measure would allow phone bills to be used as proof for taxpayers who made their donation via a text message. Under current…
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Deductions for Small Business Health Premiums
Beginning on 2009 returns, Alabama allows an enhanced deduction for small business health insurance premiums. The deduction is allowed for qualifying employers (those with less than 25 employees) and their qualified employees. Qualified employees are defined as an employee who earns no more than $50,000 of wages and reports no more than $75,000 ($150,000 for married filing a joint return) of Alabama adjusted gross income.
2010 Roth IRA Conversions
Between now and the end of the year, we will introduce several tax planning considerations for this year and next. We begin this series with a look at Roth IRA conversions, which are available to a greater number of taxpayers in 2010. Not only are more taxpayers eligible for Roth IRA conversions, but 2010 conversions…
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New Tax Incentive: Carryback Losses as Far as 2004
On November 6, 2009, President Obama signed into law the “Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009” which extends the longer loss carryback election originally only available for the 2008 tax year. The new legislation permits most taxpayers (not just small businesses) to carryback a 2009 tax year net operating loss 3, 4, or…
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Liberalized Homebuyer Credit Extension
Congress has passed legislation that expands the timeframe and scope of the homebuyer credit; the President’s signature is a foregone conclusion. As you probably know, the first-time homebuyer credit was set to expire November 30th. Under this program, a first-time homebuyer would be eligible for a refundable tax credit of up to $8,000 on his or her income tax return providing the purchase took place by the program expiration date.
Under the new program, the credit for first-time homebuyers is extended to include purchases made by April 30, 2010. Providing a contract is executed by that date, the closing of the purchase must take place by June 30, 2010 in order to qualify.
Long-time residents can benefit, too. See full post for details.
Common Sense Health Care?
Over the last several months, I’ve done a substantial amount of reading to try and understand the proposed health care reform legislation. I’ve also learned much more about our current system and proposals to make health care more affordable, efficient and accessible.
I’ll try and stay away from political commentary and avoid quoting passages from the 1,100 pages or so of proposed legislation. There are a lot of information and statistics floating around. As Mark Twain said, “There are two kinds of lies, damn lies and statistics”. Based on my reading here are three of the most interesting common sense concepts I’ve encountered: