Following the passage of the extenders legislation, the Internal Revenue Service announced today it anticipates opening the 2015 filing season as scheduled in January. 

In 2010, when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare), the effects seemed far away to many of us.  Now that the 2014 tax filing season is here, there will be several direct effects upon every American, with the requirement that all Americans of all ages obtain qualified health insurance for the entire year.  The requirement to obtain health insurance applies to you individually as well as to anyone you claim as a dependent on your return.

In one of its final acts for the 2013-14 legislative session, Congress passed the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, extending many expired tax provisions retroactively for one year through 2014. Passage also included the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, which created tax-favored savings accounts for individuals with disabilities and select tax-related offsets.

Of the 50 tax extenders passed, these provisions are deemed most significant:

Significant tax savings can be achieved through a properly planned program of gifts to charity. Although a contribution may be motivated by humanitarian reasons, it is nevertheless wise to take the tax considerations into account when making a contribution. Charitable giving can be divided into two general categories. First, there are donations that are made on a regular basis and involve relatively small amounts. Second, there is the large extraordinary donation often associated with estate planning. Different planning concepts govern each type of donation.

If you are an employer, the number of employees in your business will affect what you need to know about the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Employers with 50 or more full-time and full-time-equivalent employees are generally considered to be “applicable large employers” (ALEs) under the employer shared responsibility provisions of the ACA. Applicable large employers are subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions.

The health care reform package (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) imposes a new 3.8 percent Medicare contribution tax on the investment income of higher-income individuals. Although this tax has a wide reach, certain steps may be taken to lessen its impact.