During today’s weekly TaxCoach meeting, some folks referred to the hastily drafted and passed new tax law as a bungee to catch those falling over the dreaded Fiscal Cliff that our idiot rulers had created.  That description works for me. 

Over the next several days, there will be a lot of interpretations of the new law published.  I plan to post links to as many of the useful ones as I can; so check back to see what has been added to this post. 

TheTaxBook released this three page PDF summary, which was followed up by this longer (36 pages pdf) version.  Interestingly, this summary doesn’t mention the retroactive increase in the maximum Section 179 to $500,000 for 2012 and 2013; but the longer version does cover it.. 

Spidell has a short summary that does mention the higher Sec. 179 limit.

QuickFinder has this 8 page pdf summary of the changes.

CCH has this 12 page pdf briefing.

Journal of Accountancy’s summary: Congress passes fiscal cliff act

TaxProf Paul Caron has extensive coverage, including a link to download the actual 157 page PDF of the legislation, H.R. 8.

The Waller law firm has this 18 page PDF summary organized by code section number.  The Sec 179 increase is listed under Code Section 315.

From the US Senate Committee on Finance:

The American Taxpayer Relief Act – H.R. 8 (157 Pages PDF)
 
Revenue Estimates of The American Taxpayer Relief Act (3 Pages PDF)

Summary of American Taxpayer Relief Act Provisions (19 Pages PDF)

6 Things You Won’t Believe That Are In The Fiscal Cliff Bill That The Senate Passed At 2 AM While Most Americans Were Drunk –  Our corrupt rulers can never resist the temptation to toss in several unrelated measures to any bit of legislation they work on.