Obama Stimulus Plan Includes $300 Billion Tax Cut

President-elect Barack Obama plans to include about $300 billion in tax cuts for workers and businesses in his economic recovery program as he seeks to win over Congressional skeptics worried that he was too focused on government spending, advisers said Sunday.
Read more....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/us/politics/05spend.html
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/05/news/economy/obama_stimulus/index.htm?postversion=2009010511
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123117214431054061.html

Gift Tax 2009

Normally a person can give up to the annual exclusion amount $13000 for 2009 to a person, every year ($ 26000 in 2009 if spouses joins in for the gift) without facing any gift taxes and note that such amounts do not count as part of your $1,000,000 lifetime total.

Further, IRS allows a person to give up to $1,000,000 in gifts, total, in their lifetime, before they start owing the gift tax. (This gift is not per (donee)person but its a per donor limit). So you can make gifts that are worth up to a $1,000,000 during your lifetime without paying the gift tax. . Even if you do not owe a gift tax because you have not reached the $1,000,000 limit, you are still required to file gift tax return if you made a gift that does not qualify as excludable.

Required Minimum Distribution Suspended For 2009

On December 23, 2008, President Bush signed the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (H.R. 7327) (the "WRER Act"), which provides that owners and beneficiaries of IRAs and other defined contribution plans who are required to take required minimum distributions ("RMDs") from their plans in tax year 2009, will generally be able to leave their money in their plans without suffering any penalty for failure to withdraw. The normal rules are still in effect for 2008.

Florida Corporate Income Tax Estimated Tax Due Dates Are One Day Earlier After January 1, 2009.

Effective January 1, 2009, regardless of the tax year, the due dates for declarations of estimated tax and the due dates for payments of estimated tax will be one day earlier than previously required. This change will require declarations and payments of estimated tax to be made on or before the last day of the 4th month, the last day of the 6th month, the last day of the 9th month, and the last day of the tax year. This earlier payment due date must be taken into consideration when making electronic payments, which must be initiated before the due date.

TIP #08C01-08 (FLDOR)