Do You Know...

Do You Know How Much Your Tax Rebate Check Will Be?

Click on the link below to figure out how much your tax rebate check will be:

Tax Rebate Calculator - Kiplinger.com

THE KIPLINGER TAX REBATE CALCULATOR
How much will you get from Uncle Sam?

On Feb. 13, President Bush signed into law a multi-billion dollar economic stimulus package that includes tax rebates for millions of American taxpayers. It will take months for the U.S. Treasury to churn out $120 billion in rebate checks. In fact, since the rebates will be based on 2007 tax returns, the first checks won’t go out until weeks after the April 15 tax filing deadline.

While you wait, savor the coming largesse by calculating just how much stimulus you can expect.

Where Do the Presidential Candidates Stand on Taxes

The Kiplinger Tax Letter did a great summary of where the Presidential candidates stand on tax issues...it is a great newsletter if you want to keep up with what is going on with taxes in Washington

Kiplinger.com: The Kiplinger Tax Letter

On individual income tax rates:

• Clinton and Obama would raise rates on high-incomers, probably those making over $250,000.
  
• Clinton wants to reinstate the 39.6% top rate that applied in the 1990s.
• She and Obama would preserve Bush's tax cuts for other taxpayers... the higher child tax credit and marriage penalty relief, for example.
  
• McCain vows that he'll fight to retain the lower rates for all filers.

On investments:

• McCain would keep the 15% maximum rate on dividends and gains.
• Clinton would allow the top rate on gains to return to 20%.
  
• Obama wants a rate near 25%.
  
• Both Clinton and Obama would tax dividends as ordinary income.
  

The alternative minimum tax:

• McCain supports repealing the tax.
  
• Clinton and Obama would keep the AMT from hitting middle class filers, but Obama says that he'd increase other taxes to make up the lost revenue.
  

Estate tax:

• The current $2 million exemption is set to rise to $3.5 million in 2009. Clinton favors retaining that figure after 2009.
  
• McCain wants to increase the exemption to $10 million and cut the top rate to 15%.
  
• Obama opposes full repeal but hasn't offered any specifics.
  

Corporate taxes:

• McCain wants to lower the current 35% top rate to 25%.
  
• Clinton and Obama both oppose tax rate cuts for corporations and would raise revenue by closing "loopholes" used by oil and gas firms.
  

Health care:

• Clinton would limit the current income tax exclusion of employer-provided coverage for upper-incomers and would give a credit to low-incomers to buy insurance.
  
• McCain would eliminate the exclusion for everyone and replace it with a credit of up to $5,000 to buy coverage.
  
• Obama would tax employers that don't offer meaningful coverage to workers.
  

Huckabee has a different plan. He'd levy a 30% national sales tax to replace the individual income tax, corporate tax, estate and gift taxes plus Social Security and Medicare taxes. Nearly all sales would be taxed, including sales of new homes, services and purchases made by governments. Monthly rebates would go to all taxpayers to help offset their tax burden. IRS would be abolished. States would get the option to collect the tax. If they declined, the feds would step in and monitor the revenue stream.

New Tax Legislation for Small Businesses

Most of the talk about the most recent tax legislation just signed by President Bush focuses on the tax rebates for individuals...there were also two "gifts" for small businesses to help stimulate the economy...

• the stimulus package will provide a 50-percent bonus deduction on new equipment in the year that it is placed in service and
  
• allow employers to fully expense $250,000 in both new and used tangible property in the year it is purchased

These rules apply to 2008 only.