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Other than enjoying discounts, extended warranty, and other big promotions provided by car dealers in this recession period, taxpayers can also get an above-the-line deduction for state and local sales taxes or excise taxes paid on the purchase of new passenger vehicle in the year of 2009. The qualified new vehicles include both domestic and foreign made vehicles.
The following are some limitations to the deduction.
1. The deduction is limited to the state and local sales and excise taxes paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price, and
2. The deduction is phased out for individual taxpayer with adjusted gross income more than $125,000 and for joint filers with more than $250, 000.
3. The new vehicle must be purchased between Feb. 16, 2009 and Jan. 1, 2010.
4. New vehicle including SUV, light trucks, or motorcycles, weight no more than 8,500 pounds qualifies for the deduction.
5. The tax deduction can only be claimed in a 2009 tax return.

For businesses, they have Net Operating Losses (NOL), if their business deduction is more than business income. For individuals, they have NOL, if their business deduction exceeds business income and nonbusiness income. Generally, individual taxpayers would have a business loses to have NOL. In other words, they may end up having NOL if they have losses from pass-through entities, such as partnerships and S corporation, and losses in schedule C, E, or F in your 1040.There were two ways using NOL before passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, NOL is generally carried back 2 years for tax refunds, and then the remaining NOL is carried forward for up to 20 years to reduce the future tax liabilities. In another way, all NOL could be carried forward up to 20 years without carrying back. The Act brings a good news to certain small businesses and individuals with NOL in the tax year of 2008. It gives them rooms to play in their tax planning and ease their financial burden. The qualified small business is any business with average annual gross receipts of $15 million or less and has NOL for the tax year beginning or ending in 2008. For individuals, the gross receipts test is applied at the partnership or corporation level. In other words, individuals should combine all their pass-through taxable income to see if it meets the requirement of $15 million gross receipts.
The qualified small businesses and individuals can elect to carryback the NOL up to 5 years. It provides benefits to a lot of qualified small businesses and individuals with NOL in 2008 and taxable income in the past up to 5 years. Before taxpayers have their tax preparer make the election, they should seek advice from a CPA or CFP on their financial planning in order to make the most out of the new rules. There are some issues needed to be considered. The first thing to look at is whether they have taxable income in the past to cover the current NOL. Then, they should analyze how much tax refund they might get in each of the 5 past year if they carry NOL back to those years. Remember, taxpayer can chose to carryback 2, 3, 4, or 5 years .The goal to play this game is to apply losses to years with highest tax rates so to maximize tax refund. Also, taxpayers should consider whether they might have NOL in 2009. The new NOL rule is only applied to the 2008 NOL. For now, the 2009 NOL can only be carried back 2 years. Taxpayers may lose the opportunity to carry back losses to the year of 2007 if he or she elects to carry the 2008 losses back to the year of 2007. Therefore, an earning projection is very important. It may be more benefit to forgo the carryback election to carry the NOL forward to future years than to carry them back in some cases which the company expects big earnings in those years. Because the tax rates are more than likely to rise in the future, by carrying the NOL to those future years, taxpayer may save more taxes and gain more cash flows back to their businesses.
The rule is tricky, so talk to your adviser before making the election and you may end up saving more taxes than you think.

Money is a source of power. People from all over the world believe this, particularly businessmen and politicians. The more profit a business makes, the more power it has to make money by lowering both the buyer's and the supplier's power. People strive to make money to fulfill their needs, and to even control other people's lives as well. They strive for it all the time. Some people will even give up their dignity to chase it, or even in some cases, give up their lives for it. Many people believe that money has power because they think it brings them happiness, or it is the ultimate measure of success.
But they are just pieces of paper, right? How can pieces of printed paper gain so much prevailing power to control human beings? The truth is, society itself, has granted the power to money, and has given it permission to control us. People even pass this belief on to the next generation just by showing off a new purchase, such as a luxurious car, to their neighbors and friends.
However, money is not all powerful. Money cannot buy everything. It can buy a house, but it cannot buy a family. It can buy a clock, but not time. It can buy a book, but not knowledge. It can buy a bed, but not sleep. And it can buy medicine, but not health. Having money does not always equate to power either, as powerful figures in the world do not have to be rich, such as Mother Theresa. Although she was poor, she was one of the most influential figures in the world because of her beautiful mind and caring soul.
Of course, spending money is fun, because it gives people the power to buy what they want. However, most of them tend to spend more than what they can afford. Thus, money gains the power to control people’s lives by putting them in debt. Although there is nothing wrong with spending money, people should learn to balance the power and not let it take control of them. In order to do so, they should know more about the money they earn by first, developing a budget and then working from there. Planning is the key to successfully controlling money. Remember, when planning your budget, spending is necessary, but saving is also important for the future needs, such as for retirement. In addition, sharing with your community brings you and your community joy.
In closing, money is by no means powerless, nor is it evil. It is an important medium of exchange, and also a necessary product derived from human civilization. But people must make positive use of money, in order to truly bring along happiness and success.