The following is a summary of the most important tax developments that have occurred in the past three months that may affect you, your family, your investments, and your livelihood. Please contact us for more information about any of these developments and what steps you should implement to take advantage of favorable developments and to minimize the impact of those that are unfavorable.
New law gives tax breaks to small business. The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which was signed into law on September 27, 2010, includes a number of important tax provisions, including liberalized and expanded expensing for 2010 and 2011, revived bonus depreciation for 2010, five-year carryback of unused general business credits for eligible small businesses, removal of cell phones from the listed property category, and liberalized tax shelter penalty rules.
Schedule UTP for reporting uncertain tax positions finalized and liberalized. The IRS has released a final Schedule UTP (Form 1120), Uncertain Tax Position Statement, and an announcement detailing many liberalizations to the reporting requirements, which initially apply only to large corporations. In addition, the agency has taken steps to protect taxpayer communications with practitioners and to ensure that the program is properly applied by its own personnel. The key changes include: a five-year phase-in of the reporting requirement based on a corporation’s asset size; no reporting of a maximum tax adjustment; no reporting of the rationale and nature of uncertainty in the concise description of the position; and no reporting of administrative practice tax positions.