With healthcare, energy, and the financial markets occupying most of Congress’ attention, the estate tax has taken a backseat, but expect that to change this fall. Barring legislative action, the estate tax will go away in 2010 and return in 2011 for estates valued at greater than $1 million. Lawmakers will not allow a repeal of the estate tax, not even for a single year, and so we expect action to be taken on the estate tax issue very soon.

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The debate over healthcare reform has created the first major policy bump in the road for the Obama administration. While it seems unlikely at this point that we will see the sweeping reform that the President initially envisioned, it seems equally unlikely that we will emerge from this debate with no change on the healthcare horizon. So what does this mean for the American taxpayer?

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In order to generate more demand for new automobiles, Congress passed legislation creating the Car Allowance Rebate System, better known as the Cash for Clunkers program. Congress initially funded the program with $1 billion and, due to better than expected demand, followed that investment with another $2 billion. The program will end on Monday, August 24^th at 8 p.m.

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One byproduct of the recent economic downturn is that state and local governments are scrambling to bridge the gap between budgeted and actual collections.  One tool of the trade, of course, is the compliance examination, or audit.  Audits have long been used to spot check tax compliance, but in years past, we have found these audits to be somewhat rare, but several trends are starting to emerge.

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