As an individual or business, it is your responsibility to be aware of and to meet your tax filing/reporting deadlines. This calendar summarizes important tax reporting and filing data for individuals, businesses and other taxpayers for the month of July 2012.

The Supreme Court, in a 5 to 4 decision, has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, the provisions together comprise the Obama health care laws. The landmark decision, handed down on June 28, focused on a key provision of the law the "individual mandate" and affirmed that it was constitutional under Congress's taxing power.

Yes, penalty relief under the IRS Fresh Start initiative was a one-time offer, which required individuals to file Form 1127-A, Application for Extension of Time for Payment of Income Tax for 2011 Due to Undue Hardship, by April 17, 2012.

A SIMPLE (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees of Small Employers) IRA is a retirement savings plan designed specifically for small employers. A SIMPLE IRA is an IRA-based plan with ease of use features intended to encourage small employers, which may otherwise not offer a retirement plan, to create a retirement plan.

The dependency exemption is a valuable deduction that may be lost in many situations simply because some basic rules for qualification are not followed. Classifying someone as a dependent can also entitle you to other significant deductions or credits. Here is a rundown of some of the rules and their implications.

The IRS has issued new regulations that address when S Corp shareholders may increase their adjusted basis because of "indebtedness" of the S corp to them. The shareholder may increase the adjusted basis only if the indebtedness is bona fide. The new rules that elaborate on this basis principle are intended to

As summer arrives in Washington, so does the usual slowdown in legislative activity and 2012 appears to be no exception. Lawmakers have a full plate of tax-related bills on their agenda but progress is slow at best as both parties prepare for the November elections.

The Tax Court recently ruled on a case that should prove a cautionary example for taxpayers making charitable contributions. A married couple's deduction for charitable contributions of $25,171 to their church was disallowed because the written acknowledgment they received from their church did not meet the substantiation requirements under Code Sec. 170. The written acknowledgment had not included a statement regarding whether services were provided to taxpayers as consideration for their contribution.

Brokers as defined by Code Sec. 6045 are subject to certain reporting requirements that have been expanded incrementally over the past three years. The IRS has delayed the latest expansion, which on January 1, 2013 would have required brokers to report the cost basis of debt instruments and options to the IRS.

The Tax Court has rejected a taxpayer's attempt to deduct interest paid on her $1.1 million of indebtedness on her home. The plain language of the Tax Code limited her deduction to $550,000 because she elected to file her return as married filing separately. It did not matter that her husband did not take any mortgage interest deduction, that she paid all the interest, or that she owned the house jointly with her father-in-law who lived elsewhere.