| Tax Deadline Extended For Flood Victims
The IRS is extending their deadline for taxpayers residing or having a business in areas declared a disaster area by the President. Taxpayers not covered in the affected area but whose books, records or tax professionals’ offices are located in the disaster area are also entitled to relief. The IRS will automatically identify taxpayers located in the covered disaster area and apply automatic filing and payment relief. Those counties include: Bollinger, Butler, Calloway, Carter, Christian, Franklin, Gasconade, Cape Girardeau, Greene, Howard, Iron, Jasper, Jefferson, Laclede, Madison, Maries, McDonald, Newton, Oregon, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski, Reynolds, Ripley, Scott, Shannon, St. Louis, St. Francois, Stoddard, Stone, Taney, Texas, Washington, Wayne, and Webster The extension applies to return filing, tax payment, and certain other time-sensitive acts that otherwise were due between March 17 and May 19. The filings include most tax returns (individual, corporate, and estate and trust income tax returns, partnership returns, S corporation returns, and trust returns; estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax returns; and employment and certain excise tax returns) and tax payments, including estimated tax payments, that have either an original or extended due date falling on or after March 17, 2008 and on or before May 19, 2008.
Promise of rebates brings unusual flood of tax filings
Mattie Bridges hasn't had to worry about the Internal Revenue Service for at least five years. Now she does -- and what a blessing. A respiratory condition ended the Miami seamstress' career earlier this decade, along with her obligation to pay income taxes. But Bridges, 66, qualifies for the stimulus checks the IRS plans to send out this summer -- as long as she sends in a tax form. That swap -- simple paperwork for checks of at least $300 -- has made this one of the busiest tax seasons in recent memory as millions of retirees and low-wage workers return to the tax-paying fold to collect their windfalls. ''This year has been interesting,'' said Zaida Velasquez, office coordinator for the H&R Block office near Palmetto Bay. About 40 percent of the office's new clients came from retired and disabled people who only filed for the stimulus check.
Beshear Vetoes KHRA Assessment Relief
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said April 14 he will veto a provision in the state General Assembly’s $19-billion budget that would keep smaller racetracks in the state from paying a daily assessment to support Kentucky Horse Racing Authority operations. According to published reports, Beshear wants to form a task force to study long-term funding for the KHRA. Ellis Park, Turfway Park, and The Red Mile are among the tracks that would be spared the daily assessment, currently $3,500 a day for Thoroughbred tracks and $1,750 for harness tracks. Turfway, for instance, would retain about $400,000 because it races the most dates, while The Red Mile would save about $60,000. "Our industry is just not healthy," Joe Costa, chief executive officer of The Red Mile, said in a recent interview.
12 More Arkansas Counties Eligible For Disaster Tax Relief
The Internal Revenue Service has added 12 more Arkansas counties to those whose residents affected by the storms, flooding and tornadoes since March 18 are eligible for federal tax relief.
The included counties now are: Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Craighead, Cross, Franklin, Fulton, Green, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence, Logan, Lonoke, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Scott, Sharp, Stone and Woodruff.
In a nutshell, the major effect of this is to provide disaster-affected residents the following federal tax relief :
For individuals:
--An extension of time to file the federal income tax return (and make payment if a balance is due), which is normally due on April 15, until May 27, 2008.
--The option of claiming unreimbursed, disaster-related casualty losses on the federal income tax return for either this year (2008) or last year (2007).
Generous tax credit program draws fire
Iowa taxpayers funnel nearly $40 million a year to businesses through a tax refund program that some groups call "secret checks" and at least one lawmaker says must end largely because of a lack of public accountability.
Some lobbyists and business leaders, however, are aggressively fighting back.
The tax refunds, they say, are a critical key to Iowa's ability to resist the economic downturn that much of the rest of the nation is facing. Without the incentives, Iowa would be far less attractive for companies like Google that are investing millions of dollars in the state and collectively creating thousands of high-paying jobs. .
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