The House Ways and Means Committee estimates that the cost of permanent repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) will be $795 billion over ten years, and while there is widespread agreement that the AMT should be repealed, few in Congress believe that it will be possible to make up for the lost revenue through cuts in spending.

Business tax changes in the legislation introduced on October 24th by House Ways Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) are designed to be revenue neutral as required by House rules, and the provision to reduce the top corporate income tax rate from 35 to 30.5 percent is offset in the bill by the repeal of the last-in, first-out (LIFO) method of accounting for inventory and changes in or the elimination of other tax breaks.Although the Senate attempted unsuccessfully to repeal the use of LIFO by oil companies in 2005 in an effort to respond to critics of the government's treatment of the

By law, the dollar amounts for a variety of tax provisions must be revised each year to keep pace with inflation. As a result, more than three dozen tax benefits, affecting virtually every taxpayer, are being adjusted for 2008.

California Revenue & Taxation Code Section 19195 directs the Franchise Tax Board to publish an annual list of the top 250 taxpayers with liened state income tax delinquencies greater than $100,000. Each taxpayer is given an opportunity to voluntarily settle their liability with the state before their name appears on the public list.According to the California Franchise Tax Board, O.J.

Effective January 1, 2008, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $102,000 from $97,500. Of the estimated 164 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2008, nearly 12 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum.The Social Security Administration also announced that monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for more than 54 million Americans will increase 2.3 percent in 2008.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have cautioned taxpayers about participating in certain trust arrangements being sold to professional corporations and other small businesses as welfare benefit funds. They have identified some of the arrangements as listed transactions.There are many legitimate welfare benefit funds that provide benefits, such as health insurance and life insurance, to employees and retirees.

AccountingWEB is pleased to offer a presentation of Small Business Trends Radio. This is an hour-long broadcast that can be downloaded as a podcast or played on your computer.Starting your own small business can be an exciting venture. However, there are several things that many do not think about in advance that could put them out of business before they have barely begun. And attempting to handle some of these problems on your own may ultimately lead to negative results.Michael Rozbruch, CEO of Tax Resolution Services will assist you in steering clear of these costly pitfalls.

Some states feast at the expense of others, according to the Tax Foundation's latest annual analysis of federal taxing and spending patterns.Using newly released Fiscal Year 2005 spending data from the Census Bureau's annual Consolidated Federal Funds Report, the Tax Foundation compared the federal tax burden in each state with the amount of federal spending in each state.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that more than 800,000 of the nation's small businesses and large corporations have filed their tax returns electronically so far this year, a 60 percent increase from last year. Even though they have no electronic filing requirement, more than 780,000 small businesses have opted to e-file their tax returns this year, up more than 50 percent from last year.Many large corporations are voluntarily e-filing as well. The more than 42,000 large corporations that e-filed far exceeded the approximately 22,000 that were required to file by the Sept.