Bush's tax decreases

[Jiggers]

Can someone refresh my feeble memory on the tax decreases that Bush "AND" Congress has enacted that are set to expire in the near future?

I know that he changed the MFJ standard deduction to be equal to twice the S filing status.

Any others?

I am looking for something that I can start telling clients to be aware of for 2009 and following.

[joanmcq]

Some of them got extended in the bailout bill; the IRA charitable contribution, tuition deduction, AMT patch & sales tax credit are the ones i can remember off the top of my head.

Some that are set to expire in 2010 (remember the sunsets were to make the forward projected budget deficits not look as bad as they would be if the decreases were permanent):

0% & 15% LTCG rates (I think they go back to 20% max)
Increase in CTC to $1000
Increases in the estate tax exemption & decreases in the rate

geez its hard to remember back that far!

[Jiggers]

Reason is...

Congress and one of the candidates is saying they are going to let the Bush tax decreases expire.

Just trying to figure out what effect that will have on my clients.

I guess I can go back to previous TaxBooks and do a comparison.

[Bees Knees]

See TTB page 1-6 and 1-7. The updated years to these two pages are found at:

http://www.thetaxbook.com/updates.asp?1=2&2=2007&3=2

You will notice a number expire after 2010. Those are basically the ones that had a sunset provision from the 2001 tax act that Bush signed into law.

If a political candidate thinks he is going to let them all expire after 2010, your are going to see allot of old relatives knocked off before the end of 2010, as the Estate Tax is repealed in 2010, then comes back in 2011 with a $1 million exemption amount.

[joanmcq]

When that estate tax law came into effect we were calling it the 'throw grandma from the train' act of 2001.

[Snaggletooth]

For Real

Joan, back when they passed it, we also thought removing it and reviving it in 2011 with a lower threshold was the most ridiculous thing every thought of.

...and we thought surely some future congress would have sense enough to address this in the 8-9 years which have transpired since then.

Guess what....

[Burke]

Congress and one of the candidates is saying they are going to let the Bush tax decreases expire.Just trying to figure out what effect that will have on my clients.I guess I can go back to previous TaxBooks and do a comparison.

I wouldn't do a whole lot of work on what "might" happen. No telling what will actually come down and be passed into law. Bet they are going to be busy between now and Jan.