Senate Finance Committee Approves Tax Cuts

Earlier this week the Senate Finance Committee approved approximately $522 Billion in tax cuts and incentives in an effort to stimulate the US economy.

The bill includes over $340 Billion in tax cuts for families and businesses, with a special focus on creating jobs and helping unemployed Americans keep their health care coverage and find new jobs.  States who are struggling will also be helped by this bill.

Also included in the bill is a much-needed AMT patch, which should protect people from the alternative minimum tax this year.

This bill has not passed yet… the House and Senate each have their own version and will need to hammer out their differences before it can be made into law.

You can read more about the bill here.

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AMT Patch May Delay Filing for Some Taxpayers

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today that the
upcoming tax season is expected to start on time for everyone except
certain taxpayers potentially affected by late enactment of the
Alternative Minimum Tax “patch.”

Following extensive work in recent weeks, the IRS expects to be able to
begin processing returns for the vast majority of taxpayers in
mid-January. However, as many as 13.5 million taxpayers using five
forms related to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) legislation will
have to wait to file tax returns until the IRS completes the
reprogramming of its systems for the new law.

The IRS has targeted Feb. 11, as the potential starting date for
taxpayers to begin submitting the five AMT-related returns affected by
the legislation. The February date allows the IRS enough time to update
and test its systems to accommodate the AMT changes without major
disruptions to other operations related to the tax season. As the IRS
has said previously, it will take approximately seven weeks after the
AMT patch was approved to update IRS processing systems completely.

Continue Reading AMT Patch May Delay Filing for Some Taxpayers

Senate Passes AMT Patch

by Klaus Marre – TheHill.com

The Senate late Thursday passed a one-year fix to the alternative
minimum tax (AMT), setting up a potential confrontation with the House,
which passed a much different version of the bill earlier.

Democrats want to offset the cost of the patch, which would
shield millions of Americans from becoming eligible for the higher tax.
However, Republicans are balking at the idea and in the Senate they
have enough support to block such a plan. 

"I
am relieved that the Senate has acted this evening to extend AMT relief
for 19 million taxpayers – including nearly 100,000 Nevadans,” Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said following the vote. “But I
want to make it perfectly clear that I am very disappointed Republicans
prevented the Senate from passing AMT relief in a fiscally responsible
manner.  Instead, Republicans insisted that the $50 billion cost of
this proposal be added to the national debt – a debt that is already
growing at a rate of $1 million a minute.”

Continue Reading Senate Passes AMT Patch