Tax News Roundup, 7/22/10

SHORT NEWS WEEK


This is a short week for the Dinesen Tax Times Tax News Roundup. Your correspondent is leaving on Friday for a week-long vacation to Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming. The Tax News Roundup will return at some point in August!

PROPOSAL TO ELIMINATE ESTATE TAX VOTED DOWN

Here's the latest in the saga of the estate tax: the U.S. Senate this week voted down a proposal to eliminate the estate tax altogether. Senator Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, made the proposal. It was defeated by a vote of 39-59. Read more about it in the Wall Street Journal.

THE TAX COURT, GAMBLING AND FENG SHUI

The U.S. Tax Court this week ruled in favor of a couple who used Feng Shui and other traditional Vietnamese methods to determine their “lucky days” for gambling. The couple had claimed that they were professional gamblers but the IRS disagreed. The Tax Court sided with the couple. Read more in the Dinesen Tax Times blog posting.

RECYCLED: WILL MY HEALTH INSURANCE BE TAXABLE?

This question keeps popping up: will my health insurance be taxable? The short answer to the question is NO. The Dinesen Tax Times has covered this story, once on June 27th and again on July 21st. Read the July 21st article here.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EXTENDED

Congress extended unemployment benefits for 2.9 million unemployed Americans this week. Read more here.

As a friendly reminder, unemployment benefits are taxable, so if you receive unemployment in 2010, you'll have to report it as income on your 2010 tax return. For 2009, you were exempt from taxes on the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits, but Congress has not extended that exemption for 2010 (at least not yet).