In the second half of 2008, the IRS increased the standard mileage rate to 58.5 cents per mile from 50.5 cents per mile for people who use their personal car for business use. This was in response to skyrocketing gas prices earlier in the year.

Since then, gas prices have dropped dramatically. Prices were as high as $4.10 in some states during the summertime, but have dropped to a national average of $1.90 in this last week in November.

I was wondering how the IRS...

It’s hard to believe we’re almost at the end of the year already. As I write this, there are only a few weeks left in 2008.

Most people probably aren’t thinking about taxes yet, but the time to do tax planning is before the year ends. Once December 31 has passed, there’s very little you can do to help reduce your 2008 taxes.

The first step in tax planning is to determine where you are for the year. Pull out last year’s tax return for a reference. You also...

Self employed taxpayers get the honor of paying the self employment tax on top of their regular income tax. This can be quite a burden, especially for new business owners.

There has been some indication that there will be tax relief for small business owners in President-Elect Obama’s new tax plan.

So how will the new tax plan affect you, as a self employed individual (or couple)?

According to BarackObama.com, the new tax plan will include:
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Buried deep in the housing act that was just passed is a provision that requires credit card processors - including companies like eBay and PayPal - to report annual gross receipts of it’s merchants to the IRS.

Credit card processors will be required to file Form 1099 for each merchant that has at least $10,000 in gross sales and 200 transactions.

Companies have until 2011 to comply with this new law.

The purpose of this new law is to raise revenue...