Analysis of This Popular Tax Break Now Available
In a last-minute move before adjourning for the July 4th holiday, Congress has provided relief to taxpayers to claim the first-time homebuyer credit. The Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010 extends the closing date deadline to claim the credit, from June 30, 2010, to September 30, 2010, for homebuyers who signed sales contracts prior to May 1, 2010. It is estimated that this extension will enable an estimated 180,000 additional homebuyers to utilize the homebuyer credit.
To help pay for this relief, Congress enacted several revenue-raising provisions:
A delay in the transfer of Travel Promotion Board Fees
Clarification of the bad check penalty for electronic payments
Return-disclosure authorization to prevent homebuyer credit fraud among State prison inmates
Congress has also passed a number of other small tax code changes recently, including:
The so-called Medicare “doc fix” which reverses a 21 percent cut in Medicare physician reimbursements that took effect June 1, 2010
Pension funding relief measures that are intended to give sponsors of defined benefit plans additional time to amortize pension funding shortfalls
An extension of the airline ticket tax and aviation fuels tax through August 1, 2010
