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You'll find lots of new deductions, credits and expanded eligibility rules when you prepare your 2009 tax return.

There's no denying that 2009 was a challenging year for millions of Americans. But filling out your 2009 tax return could bring some welcome relief in the form of a big refund. There are a slew of new and expanded tax breaks for home buyers and car buyers, college students and their parents, homeowners who installed energy-efficient improvements, and the unemployed. Together, these tax savings are expected to boost average tax refunds above last year's level of about $2,800, says IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis. The sooner you file, the sooner you'll get your money back.

Here are highlights of what's new for 2009 tax returns.

Story link: tax-breaks-for-almost-everyone: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Thank China for that.

No tax relief here in Ireland.

No, the government has decided to tax and levy their way out of the recession.

My tax deductions this year are now at 47%.

But it is even worse that is sounds.

There have been 3 income levy introduced in the past year.

The first on the gross income (it is just there to help bail out the banks)

The second is a levy again on the gross income, and that is for helping our failing health care system.

The third is again on the gross income and that is just because I am employed.

So after these are all taken off of the gross, I am them taxed the usual tax on the gross income.

Ok this is bad enough, but then they are removing services that we get from the system and we now have to start paying for them.

So we are paying higher taxes than ever before and now paying for services (that we use to get from the taxes we paid).

Now to make it worse, they have decided that things like garbage collection, parking metres and stuff like that are ‘services’ and therefore should also be liable for ‘service taxes’ (VAT),

so they will be taxing the services that we now have to pay for that use to be covered by the taxes we paid, before the taxes went up and the levies were introduced.

And still stuck with the need to further bail out our banks and developers.

Ireland is a black hole of corruption and bad politicians

hoppy;1285487 wrote: Thank China for that.Would you mind explaining what you mean?

Ahso!;1285500 wrote: Would you mind explaining what you mean?


Yes.

Most of those breaks have been on the tax books for years.

IE.....

Tax credit for home insulation.

Credits for buying a hybrid car etc.....



Cap and Trade, when it becomes law will squash all of those deductions out.



Here is a eye opener for the ones that think our taxes or not ALREADY progressive:

WHO IS PAYING TAXES?



46% of American tax payers will have ZERO federal tax liabilities on their 2009 returns. That leaves 54% (80,000,000+) to pay the 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) collected.

BTS;1285776 wrote: Most of those breaks have been on the tax books for years.

IE.....

Tax credit for home insulation.

Credits for buying a hybrid car etc.....



Cap and Trade, when it becomes law will squash all of those deductions out.



Here is a eye opener for the ones that think our taxes or not ALREADY progressive:

WHO IS PAYING TAXES?



46% of American tax payers will have ZERO federal tax liabilities on their 2009 returns. That leaves 54% (80,000,000+) to pay the 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) collected.I don't understand what a "tax unit" is. First I see it saying that out of 307+ million people 152 million are tax units and then on the bottom of the graph it says tax units include "non-filers". What then is a tax unit exactly?

Ahso!;1285780 wrote: I don't understand what a "tax unit" is. First I see it saying that out of 307+ million people 152 million are tax units and then on the bottom of the graph it says tax units include "non-filers". What then is a tax unit exactly?


It filters out the under aged and non tax payers IE....prisoners, insane people....ETC



USA had 304,059,724 people - Jul 2008

Not all pay taxes.

BTS;1285847 wrote: It filters out the under aged and non tax payers IE....prisoners, insane people....ETC



USA had 304,059,724 people - Jul 2008

Not all pay taxes.

That I understand, so instead of percentages (which can lie) why not use actual numbers?

I wonder who the 16% of the highest earners are that are not paying any tax.

What is your opinion on this? Do you think everyone should be paying the same amount of taxes or what?

Ahso!;1285858 wrote: That I understand, so instead of percentages (which can lie) why not use actual numbers?

I wonder who the 2% of the highest earners are that are not paying any tax.

What is your opinion on this? Do you think everyone should be paying the same amount of taxes or what?


I'd like to see a flat-rate tax. The more you buy, the more you pay. :rolleyes:

Saint_;1285865 wrote: I'd like to see a flat-rate tax. The more you buy, the more you pay. :rolleyes:Me too, but thats never going to happen. There would be no way to guarantee funding for the military. I say let corporations pay for the military, its their muscle.

BTS;1285847 wrote: insane people




Insane people dont have to pay taxes? If all they need is documentation.......:-6

Nomad;1291822 wrote: Insane people dont have to pay taxes? If all they need is documentation.......:-6No wonder conservative people claim they should not have to pay taxes. Thanks for making that link for me.