Tax Bill

One more day to pay your taxes. What if you don't have the money? As tempting as it would be to ignore the tax bill and hope the Internal Revenue Service won't notice, that's the worst thing you can do. "Eventually, they are going to catch up to you and send you notices, asking, 'Where is your tax return?' " says Maureen McGetrick, a tax partner with BDO Seidman in New York. "After a period of time, they will file your tax return for you, input your income, tax and interest. And send you a bill."

Mutual fund investors brace yourselves: You might be in your biggest tax bite since 2000. Around this time each year, funds pass on dividends and capital gains earned on the sale of securities to investors. This year's distributions are expected to be exceptionally high, partly due to the volatile stock market. "This will be one of the worst [years] we have seen on record in terms of the tax bill," says Tom Roseen, senior research analyst with Lipper Inc. Roseen estimates that this year's tax tab will be close to that of 2000, when fund investors in taxable accounts paid $33.1 billion in taxes on capital gains and dividends.

WASHINGTON -- After a day of frantic negotiations, House Republican leaders finally succeeded last night in overcoming opposition from recalcitrant members of their own party that delayed until today a vote on the $792 billion GOP tax cut proposal.Working behind closed doors late into the evening, they made enough last-minute changes to soften GOP resistance to the legislation that has been designated the centerpiece of the Republican agenda.With only a 222-to-211 margin over the Democrats who are united in opposition to the measure, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his lieutenants could not afford more than a handful of defections.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton carried out his long-promised veto of the Republicans' $792 billion tax cut proposal yesterday, rejecting it as "too big, too bloated" and "too great a burden on America's economy," even as he invited Congress to cooperate on a grand economic compromise."

General Assembly leaders put the finishing touches yesterday on a bill that would let Marylanders choose their power company, putting pressure on Gov. Parris N. Glendening to sign the pro-business measure or jeopardize his top legislative priorities.A joint conference committee hammered out the last major differences between two similar electricity deregulation bills approved by the House of Delegates and Senate.The final measure includes a rate reduction of 3 percent to 7.5 percent for residential customers who stay with their utilities, and it would create a $34 million fund to help the poor pay their bills.

HERE'S HOW to lower your 1999 tax bill: "Defer income into 2000," says Tax Hotline. "Buy six-month or one-year T-bills or CDs that don't credit interest until maturity next year."Act now; the longer you wait, the less income you can throw into 2000 and the larger 1999's tax bill will be."WALL STREET WATCH: "10 out of 10 indicators we follow say we're in a bubble, bigger than any bubble before. Investors' risk is at an all-time high." (Wall Street Notes)"If breadth deterioration, seasonal woes, sloppy bond market, falling dollar and tough-talking Fed-head Alan Greenspan don't make you nervous -- check your pulse rate!

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's pledge last weekend to veto a compromise package of tax cuts appears to have steeled the resolve of wavering Democrats to oppose the sweeping tax bill that will reach the Senate floor tomorrow, and it may have shifted the debate toward far more modest tax proposals.The White House surprised Democrats and Republicans alike Sunday when it dispatched senior advisers to issue veto threats not only for the House-passed $792 billion tax bill but also for a $500 billion proposal that has been backed by a group of Senate Democrats.

WASHINGTON -- House and Senate Republican negotiators forged a compromise last night on a tax-cut bill that would reduce rates by 1 percentage point for Americans at every income level and phase out the "marriage penalty" that affects many two-earner couples.Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told reporters that the negotiators had decided to embrace the House's approach of cutting taxes for everyone regardless of income -- though not by an equal amount -- rather than a Senate plan to cut income taxes only for those near the bottom of the scale.

CONGRESS MAY not be certain yet about what size and shape the 1999 federal tax-cut bill will take. But the outlook for tax changes affecting homeowners finally appeared clearer last week.The best news for homeowners on taxes is that Congress plans only modest tinkering with the generous money-saving provisions granted homeowners in 1997 -- and one of the tinkerings liberalizes the law.The sobering news is that a handful of proposals that would help certain categories of homeowners -- particularly older home sellers facing the "surviving spouse" tax trap -- now appear unlikely to be included in this year's major tax legislation.

WASHINGTON -- Stepping up his attack on Republican tax-cutting proposals, President Clinton said yesterday that the cost of the tax bill moving through the House would rise to "unimaginable" levels and threaten the nation's ability to deal with its most pressing long-term problems.A new estimate by the Treasury Department shows the cost of the House tax bill would "explode" from $864 billion over the first decade to $3 trillion in the 10-year period starting in 2010, Clinton said. The country could not afford that much for tax cuts while shoring up Social Security and Medicare, both of which will come under severe financial strain in the next few decades as the baby boom generation retires and life expectancies increase.

A new Baltimore city ordinance requires the disclosure of more-accurate information about property taxes in real estate advertisements - an effort to clamp down on misleadingly low figures that can cause panic for buyers when they realize they have to pay far higher taxes than the previous owner. The ordinance takes effect in about three months and means that ads may not state the current owner's taxes, which can include homestead credits and other tax breaks that do not transfer to the buyer.

One more day to pay your taxes. What if you don't have the money? As tempting as it would be to ignore the tax bill and hope the Internal Revenue Service won't notice, that's the worst thing you can do. "Eventually, they are going to catch up to you and send you notices, asking, 'Where is your tax return?' " says Maureen McGetrick, a tax partner with BDO Seidman in New York. "After a period of time, they will file your tax return for you, input your income, tax and interest. And send you a bill."

It's a rite of winter: Tax assessment notices hit Maryland mailboxes in December, and thousands of homeowners rush to file appeals within the 45-day window. Now, however, property appraisers from the state report a new phenomenon: a drove of challenges to assessments recorded a year or more ago. Two years ago, fewer than 900 "petitions for review" were filed. But with the slump in home values showing no sign of abating, more than 15,000 Maryland homeowners exercised their appeal rights last year.

Last year, convinced that landlords and owners of second homes were claiming tax breaks they didn't deserve, legislators unanimously passed a law requiring all Maryland homeowners to apply for a valuable tax credit that they've gotten more or less automatically until now. Since December, though, state lawmakers have been peppered with questions and complaints from homeowners about the new application requirement. Now, they're considering calling the whole thing off. "In an era of foreclosures and recession, we should take a step back and find a better way," said state Sen. Edward J. Kasemeyer, the Senate majority leader.

Mutual fund investors brace yourselves: You might be in your biggest tax bite since 2000. Around this time each year, funds pass on dividends and capital gains earned on the sale of securities to investors. This year's distributions are expected to be exceptionally high, partly due to the volatile stock market. "This will be one of the worst [years] we have seen on record in terms of the tax bill," says Tom Roseen, senior research analyst with Lipper Inc. Roseen estimates that this year's tax tab will be close to that of 2000, when fund investors in taxable accounts paid $33.1 billion in taxes on capital gains and dividends.

Several Maryland senators say they expect to reach a compromise with the House of Delegates over their competing tax bills, but differences over how to overhaul personal-income tax rates could prove thorny. Most of the Montgomery County senators who voted in favor of that chamber's tax bill last week said the House version hits upper-income taxpayers too hard, although the House did not go as far as Gov. Martin O'Malley. Sen. Jennie M. Forehand, a Montgomery County Democrat, said she did not think the top income-tax bracket, for those with incomes more than $500,000 a year, should be higher than 5.5 percent.

The Maryland Senate and House of Delegates charted divergent courses yesterday for closing a $1.7 billion budget gap, with the Senate approving a plan that increases the sales, tobacco and corporate income tax rates while House leaders pushed an alternative that more heavily taxes the wealthy and corporations. The Senate voted 24-23 yesterday to approve a plan that would raise more than $1.4 billion in new tax revenues a year. The measures now go to the House, where a committee approved alternate versions of the legislation yesterday.

A badly split citizens committee tentatively agreed yesterday to recommend an added property tax break for low-income senior homeowners in Howard County. The group is scheduled to meet next week to complete a report due to the County Council by mid-November. Yesterday's 5-4 vote represented a victory for Don Dunn, a 78-year-old west county resident who has pushed hard on the 15-member Senior Tax Credit Task Force for more relief than the law now provides. The vote frustrated Chairman Ted L. Meyerson's attempt to get the group to suggest leaving the law as it is until next year, when more data on how it is working are available.

In the past two years, Carroll County has collected more than $750,000 in payments from the private companies that lease corporate hangars at the Carroll County Regional Airport, local authorities said. It's a revenue source that county officials hope will grow as the airport's planned multimillion-dollar runway expansion is completed in the coming years. But only two of the leases on Carroll's seven corporate hangars call for the tenants to pay the county and state property taxes owed on the commercial aircraft shelters, county Comptroller Robert M. Burk told the commissioners on Thursday.

The County Council's vote to limit property tax breaks for older homeowners may mark the start of a new round of study and possible changes in the tax laws rather than the end of the debate. That's one thing people on both sides of the divisive issue seem to agree on. "I believe they have more work to do," Councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, a west Columbia Democrat, said after "reluctantly" backing the new tax bill the council adopted on a 3-2 vote Wednesday night. Courtney Watson, an Ellicott City Democrat who voted against the bill, said added changes are likely "in as little as a year," which is one reason she opposed now changing a law passed less than six months ago. "It's not in the best interest of the county to pass Council Bill 68 [last year's tax bill]