What's new in taxes?

    I have to admit that commentary on taxes can be pretty dull most of the time, but as a CPA it is my duty to say something about it now and then.
    The last tax deal between Democrats and Republicans renewed most of the Bush era tax laws, but raised some taxes for "upper income" people.  Also, the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) has added some taxes for "the rich," most notably the Medicare tax on investment income for people in high income brackets.
    People in low to moderate tax brackets continue to have a safe harbor in which capital gains are not taxed at all.  This zero percent capital gains rate exists for them until their total taxable income moves above the 15% tax bracket.  Above that point, more and more of the gains will be taxed at a rate of 15%.
     In the highest tax bracket, a 20% capital gains rate applies, and the 3.8% Medicare tax on investment income kicks in.
     People in high tax brackets may see their taxes quite a bit higher this year.  For other people, the difference may be slight or non-existent.
     Moving forward to 2014, the only thing worthy of comment so far is that a large number of miscellaneous tax breaks expired at the end of 2013.  This is something that has happened in each of the past several years, and Congress has subsequently restored them.  Thus this is apparently no big deal.  However, it is always possible that this could be the year that they decide not to renew them.
     The only one that is really "big" is the expanded Section 179 deduction that small businesses can use to write off large purchases of equipment.  This deduction is suddenly reduced from a maximum of $500,000 to its original level of $25,000.  I.e., it goes from really great to practically nothing.  Some businesses that use it a lot could find themselves suddenly paying a lot of taxes unless it is changed.