We have refurbished our office and are in the process of getting new signage, a new Logo, business cards, stationery, etc.

I will make a strong effort to begin blogging again.  There are so many new tax laws and changes this year that will give me much to blog about.

I have been extremely busy the last week getting my Tax Office ready to open for the Tax filing season, which begins this friday.  I will continue to post, but probably not every day.

This tax credit is available for a limited time only.

1.  Applies to home purchases after April 8, 2008, and before July 1, 2009.

2.  Reduces a taxpayer’s tax bill or increases his or her refund, dollar for dollar.

3.  Is fully refundable, meaning that the credit will be paid out to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax they owe.

However, the credit operates much like an interest free loan, because it must be repaid over a 15 year period. So, for example, an eligible taxpayer who buys a home today and properly claims the maximum available credit of $7,500 on his or her 2008 federal income tax return must begin repaying the credit by including one-fifteenth of this amount, or $500, as an additional tax on his or her 2010 return.

Eligible taxpayers will claim the credit on the new IRS Form 5405.  This form, along with further instructions on claiming the first-time homebuyer credit, will be included in 2008 tax forms and instructions and be available later this year on IRS.gov, the IRS Web site.

This credit could help some people with costs associated with purchasing a new home, but it is really an interest free loan. 

Taxpayers who owned a main home at any time during the three years prior to the date of purchase are not eligible for the credit.  This means that first-time home buyers and those who have not owned a home in the three years prior to a purchase can qualify for the credit.

Tax-bracket thresholds increase for each filing status.  For a married couple filing a joint return, for example,  the taxable-income threshold separating the 15% bracket from the 25%  bracket is $65,100, up from $63,700 in 2007.

The maximum earned income tax credit for low and moderate income workers and working families with two or more children is $4824, up from $4716.  The income limit for the credit for joint filers with two or more children is $41,646, up from $39,783.

There are still more changes and I will continue to post them over the next few days.

I’m going to do a series of posts on tax changes that will affect your Income Tax Return for this year and then I will do a series of posts on different types of business entities, such as Sole Proprietor, Partnerships, LLC and Corporate tax returns.

Inflation adjustments are made each year in order to keep up with inflation.  I’ve already covered the rate changes for automobile mileage, so lets cover some more changes.

The value of each personal and dependency exemption will increase to $3500, up $100 from 2007.

The new standard deduction is $10,900 for married couples filing a joint return (up $200), $5450 for singles and married individuals filing separately (up $100) and $8000 for heads of household (up $150).  Up to 60% of tax payers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.

I’ll continue with these changes in my next post.

The standard mileage rate for business use of your vehicle this year will be:

50.5 cents per mile for the period 1 Jan 2008 – 30 June 2008.

58.5 cents per mile for the period 1 Jul 2008 – 31 Dec 2008.

If you itemize medical expenses, you can claim 19 cents per mile for the January thru June period and 27 cents per mile for the period July through December.  The same rates also apply to moving expenses, if you made a deductible move.

Charitable related mileage remains the same for this year and it is written off at 14 cents per mile.

I will be posting some of the additional changes related to this years Income Tax Return in the next few days.