Extenders and renewals

[LCP]

My other thread turned into a discussion of tax philosophy.... not that there is anything wrong with that.

I'm interested in specifics. The $250 for teachers and tuition deduction went away 1/1/10...they need to be brought back soon if they are going to be.

As we all know, the rates and other things change siginificantly next year.

Is there a bill out there that could be passed quickly or tweaked a little and passed relatively soon?

[Bees Knees]

Is there a bill out there that could be passed quickly or tweaked a little and passed relatively soon?

Extender legislation has been in numerous bills this year that have not yet been passed. It could easily be combined into one bill and passed today, if Congress wanted to. The problem is not the time it takes to write legislation and then get it passed. The problem is getting enough to agree on what needs to be done and then getting it signed into law.

[LCP]

Has that proposed legislation included every item that went away 1/1/0 as well as every one that is scheduled to go away 1/1/11?

[FEDUKE404]

Not on current radar screen

Has that proposed legislation included every item that went away 1/1/0 as well as every one that is scheduled to go away 1/1/11?

I doubt if any legislation included "every item" but since everything is pending and subject to the whims of the folks in Washington, I don't clutter my brain with any "what if's" until binding tax legislation is finally passed.

Something as small as the $250 educator adjustment is not anything that would greatly concern me one way or the other at this point. So long as the word "retroactive" is around, just about anything is possible.

For my 2¢ worth, I feel that for calendar year 2010 the vast majority of the "Bush tax cuts" will be continued for the "non-rich" folks and may well continue, at least for a couple of years, for virtually everyone.

FE

[JohnH]

Yes, they could get it done today if the really wanted to do so. I've always interpreted "getting enough to agree on what needs to be done" to mean, "getting all the bribes, payoffs, and horse trades in place". But maybe I'm just being simplistic, naive, cynical, or a combination of all the above.

[solomon]

Here is a recent one of them.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3793:

[PIGLEE]

I am more concerned that they pass a bill to fix the AMT tax. That really needs to be done.

[S T]

AMT for 2010

Yes Piglee, I second your thoughts
AMT extended patch or fix is the big item for my tax clients for 2010, otherwise I have a lot of tax clients that will be paying extra $ due to AMT that have not been subject to AMT in the past

Sandy

[solomon]

I am more concerned that they pass a bill to fix the AMT tax. That really needs to be done.

House Ways and Means and Senate Finance have advised the IRS there will be a patch before year end - 47,450 and 72,450.

[Burke]

At a recent state tax conference, a very learned professor who teaches AMT remarked that the reason they do not put a permanent patch in, is due to budget (revenue-neutral) concerns in the bill. By passing a "patch" every year, they can avoid this little niggling detail. I am not sure how.