Alternative Fuels

Ben Stein (anyone, anyone) gives humorous, but TRUE, tax advice in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.



Ronald Reagan, upon taking office in the midst of strong recession, high inflation, and low employment, also knew to reduce taxes. This precipitated the greatest peace time economic expansion ever. Had congress also cut spending... well that's water under the bridge.

Fast forward to Obama and the current Congress and the following has occurred:

The House has passed legislation (H.R. 4213) that would have extended 63 current tax provisions, but the Senate failed to bring this bill to a vote. Thus, all of these provisions expired at midnight December 31st.

Notable provisions as reported Friday, by Tax Notes include:
- Deduction of state and local general sales taxes (section 164) (Personal Tax Incentives)
- Additional standard deduction, up to $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples, for state and local property taxes (section 63) (Personal Tax Incentives)
- Research tax credit and alternative simplified credit (section 41) (General Business Tax Incentives)
- New markets tax credit (section 45D) (Community Assistance Provisions)
- Empowerment zone incentives (sections 1391 and 1202) (Community Assistance Provisions)
- Renewal community tax incentives (sections 1400E, 1400F, 1400I, and 1400J) (Community Assistance Provisions)
- District of Columbia Investment Incentives (sections 1400, 1400A, 1400B, and 1400C) (Community Assistance Provisions)
- Net disaster loss designation and $500 limit per casualty for personal casualty losses attributed to federally declared natural disasters (section 165) (General Disaster Relief Provisions)
- Expensing for qualified disaster expenses (section 198A) (General Disaster Relief Provisions)
- Biodiesel and renewable diesel incentives (section 40A) (Energy Incentives)
- Alternative motor vehicle credit for heavy hybrids (section 30B) (Energy Incentives)

Although the House has acted and passed its version of the Tax Extenders Act of 2009, the Senate failed to act on similar legislation, as a result the following additional key tax provisions will expire:
- Increased exemption levels for the individual alternative minimum tax (section 55) and personal tax credits allowed against the AMT (section 26)
- Exclusion of unemployment compensation benefits from gross income (section 85)
- Alternative fuel mixture tax credit (section 6426(e))
- Reduced estimated tax payments for small businesses (section 6654(d)(1)(D))

Instead of handling what needs taking care of, in this case tax issues, Congress has devoted it's time to developing and passing an unconstitutional health care package that no one wants.