If you’re looking for quality information on 529 college savings plans, you’ll be pleased to learn that Joe Hurley, the 529 “guru,” has repurchased Savingforcollege.com, three years after selling it to Bankrate Inc. Joe will be publishing a new edition of his terrific book “The Best Way to Save for College: A Complete Guide to 529 Plans” in April of this year and plans to get busy again with speaking and conferences. Savingforcollege.com recently released its 529 plan performance rankings for 2010 Q4, one of the more popular sections of the website.

Microsoft Outlook offers a way to automatically insert holidays and other events in the calendar. If you’ve done this, your version may say (as ours does) that April 15, 2011 is “Tax Day” in the U.S. Not true! Emancipation Day, a holiday in the District of Columbia, falls on April 15 this year, and that means IRS deadlines that would otherwise fall on that date are delayed until Monday, April 18.

The delayed deadline applies to Form 1040, filing for an extension, first quarter estimates, IRA contributions for 2010, and any other federal tax item that would normally have an April 15 deadline. If filing a state return, check to see whether your state recognizes this extension.

Passage of the tax deal received a boost as a strong supermajority of both parties in the Senate voted for cloture, meaning it cannot be filibustered. Opposition was thin and divided roughly equally between the parties as 82% of Senate Democrats joined 88% of Senate Republicans in approving the measure.

This count treats as Democrats two independents who align with that party. Weather delays prevented Oregon’s two Democratic senators from returning in time to vote.

Here are key points of the tax deal that was signed into law December 17, 2010. (more…)

Brer Fox finally captured his tormentor, Brer Rabbit. “I’ll tie you up and roast you,” he said.

“Roast me all you want, just don’t make me cut taxes for everybody,” a quivering Brer Rabbit replied.

“There’s nothing here to tie you, so I’m going to drown you.”

“You can drown me, do anything you want as long as you don’t make me cut taxes for everybody!”

“There’s not enough water to drown you, so I’m going to do the thing that will hurt you most.”

So Brer Fox flung Brer Rabbit into the brier patch, but not before making him give a big tax cut to everyone in the land.

As of January 1, 2011, over-the-counter drugs purchased without a prescription will no longer be eligible for reimbursement from health reimbursement accounts and flexible spending accounts (HRAs and FSAs). Insulin purchases are not affected, but as of next year you’ll need a prescription for OTC drugs if you want to use funds in these accounts to pay for them. The IRS has issued guidance explaining this change in the rules. (more…)

The seamy but profitable business of offering refund anticipation loans, or RALs, took a body blow last month when the IRS announced it would no longer provide debt indicators to RAL providers. The news since then has not been good for the RAL industry. (more…)