The House voted 247-170 on a largely partisan basis June 15 to pass a small business tax relief bill (H.R. 5486), whose offsets also will be used to pay for a small business lending bill set for a June 16 House floor debate.

Included in the tax bill is a 100 percent exclusion for capital gains from the sale of certain small business stock that is held for more than five years and is acquired between March 15, 2010, and Jan. 1, 2012, as well as a $508 million provision that would increase for 2010 and 2011 the deduction for business start-up expenses from $5,000 to $20,000.

The House also June 15 defeated a Republican motion to recommit that would have repealed the recently enacted health care law’s (Pub. L. No. 111-148) individual mandate to maintain insurance coverage.

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The Senate began debate on an updated version of a tax extenders bill (H.R. 4213) June 8 that would scale back the tax increase on investment managers’ carried interest earnings, making it all but certain that the bill will again be returned to the House.

Although House lawmakers said they had worked with Senate leaders to negotiate a bill that could pass both houses of Congress, the first action of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) was to modify the carried interest language and further increase the excise tax on oil in an effort to secure the requisite 60 votes for passage.

Under the Senate’s version of the American Jobs and Closing Loopholes Act, 65 percent of carried interest earned by investment fund managers would be taxed at ordinary income tax rates of up to 39.6 percent, instead of the 15 percent capital gains tax rate for which they currently qualify.

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The Internal Revenue Service May 17 provided comprehensive guidance (Notice 2010-44) on a small-employer tax credit included in recently enacted health care reform legislation…

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The Internal Revenue Service’s “enhanced information reporting” initiatives coupled with the onset of tax return preparer regulations will transform aspects of tax administration beginning in 2011, agency Chief Counsel William Wilkins said May 7…

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House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin (D-Mich.) shortened the time frame for consideration of a final tax extenders measure (H.R. 4213), telling reporters May 6 that it will be on the floor within the next two weeks.

The Internal Revenue Service April 27 issued Notice 2010-38 on the tax treatment of health care coverage for an employee’s adult children as provided in recent law changes, announcing in an accompanyingnews release (IR-2010-53) that employers with cafeteria plans may…

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President Obama’s 18-member fiscal commission, which meets for the first time April 27, faces a difficult challenge to meet its twin goals of medium- and long-term deficit reduction, according to balanced-budget advocates…

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The Senate Budget Committee approved its fiscal year 2011 budget resolution April 22, voting 12-10 to send the full Senate a package that would allow top individual income tax rates to rise in 2011 while allowing for…

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Taxpayers operating in the regions covered by the Courts of Appeal of the Second, Fourth, and Eighth Circuits will be most affected by the health care law’s changes to the way the economic substance doctrine is applied to…

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