BREAKING NEWS: Senate passed this legislation in a late evening session Saturday night, President Obama is expected to sign the legislation into law later TODAY (Monday 12/15/2014).
After a year of hardly doing anything more than ‘barking’ back and forth at each other, Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate suddenly seem to be ‘on track’ to approve needed tax extensions. While the House has already passed a bill, the current ‘compromise’ with the Senate would be part of an ‘omnibus’ spending bill to finance the government through the end of fiscal year 2014 that includes roughly 50 tax-extending provisions worth $41.6 billion. Along with government funding the legislation would reinstate a number of key tax breaks that expired on Dec. 31, 2013 for both consumers and businesses.
Among the important personal tax breaks included in this bill are the state and local sales tax deduction, how certain debt forgiveness is treated in cases where an individual short-sold their home, and breaks for students and teachers regarding deductions for tuition and classroom expenses.
The tax-extenders also include a number of critical tax deductions for businesses as well. In fact, 80% of the $41.6 billion would go toward benefiting businesses.
For more information on some of the details of these tax deductions, see the following articles written by our resident tax expert Rob Shaff:
Tax Talk: The Fate of the 2014 Tax Extenders Bill – What Now?