Tax relief update and more tax resources for freelancers

I'm staying on top of the income tax news this year, it seems: I've already blogged about 2007 tax forms for freelancers, and potential tax relief that could affect freelancers.

As an update on the latter, it sounds like Congress has worked out the details of a tax relief package. Everyone will be getting a rebate of at least $300 each, though it'll probably be summer before anyone sees the money — the IRS can't issue special rebate checks and process 2007 tax returns all at once, it seems.

The package is also supposed to provide "tax breaks for businesses," including "more generous expensing rules" for small businesses. Presumably this should all take effect for 2007 tax returns, since the goal is to stimulate the economy NOW, but I just don't see how that's going to work. Most of us only keep receipts for things we know we can expense, so I doubt changing the rules at the last minute will be very effective for 2007.

For 2008, though, it might be great — if they tell us soon what the new rules are. Which brings me to my second reason for this post: to share more tax resources I stumbled across.

* Tax Law Changes for Individuals — This page sums up all the changes in tax law that you should be aware of before filing your 2007 tax returns.

* Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource — This page contains numerous resources for small businesses and self-employed individuals, including a page for recent business-related tax news.

I'm hoping that when they make a more formal announcement about the current tax relief plan, the changes will show up in these places.

I also was interested to find that the IRS offers online lessons to help small business owners and self-employed individuals learn what they need to know about filing their taxes: running your business with tax requirements in mind, and running your business out of your home.

There seems to be a lot of good information on these pages, so I hope you find them helpful!