Florida Tax Lawyer Blog

Florida business owners are expected to receive a substantial measure of tax relief - more than $800 million, to be exact - following the swift, last-minute approval of a bill by state lawmakers this month.

Miami tax attorneys have been closely following the bill, which now only requires the governor's signature to become law. The measure was tacked on to another amendment to simply rename the state's unemployment program. Up until now, it had received little fanfare.

As it stands now, businesses have to pay about $170 per employee for unemployment compensation tax. The new measure would reduce that amount to about $120 - a whopping 41 percent reduction that will ultimately total hundreds of millions of dollars within three years.

Proponents of the measure say it provides necessary relief at a time when businesses are fighting to regain stable footing in a slumped economy.

The business community as a whole, though, is supportive of this measure. Over the next year and a half, it's going to save companies almost $550 million. Another $250 million is going to be saved over the next three years.

What this situation further shows is that tax law is always changing. Just look at the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act that President Barack Obama signed into law two years ago. It was part of an effort to diminish offshore tax abuses by residents and citizens of the U.S.

Here are some other recent tax changes, as outlined by AOL's Money & Finance site:

1. There will be higher brackets, deductions and exemptions.
2. There will be new forms for capital gains or losses from mutual funds, sales of stocks or other investments.
3. There are going to be mixed mileage rates - $0.51 per mile for the first six months of 2011 and $0.55 per mile over the last six months. This is for business mileage, as well as medical mileage.
4. The 2 percent payroll tax deductions is going to continue through the rest of this year.
5. Last year, a provision allowed people to put off including their Roth conversion into the taxable income from last year. But that must now be added to this year's tax returns.
6. There are going to be higher exemptions for the alternative minimum tax (or AMT).

In addition to these, the IRS also lists several dozen updates to the tax code just in the last year.

What all of this illustrates is that the need for a Miami tax attorney is critical throughout this process. Even if you have been filing your own taxes for years, the changes can be complicated and creep up seemingly without warning. What you don't want to happen is to inadvertently make a mistake and wind up embroiled in an audit, which is going to drain a good deal of your valuable time and energy.