In this special CCH Tax Briefing, President-elect Barack Obama’s tax proposals are explained and some of the impacts of these proposals are examined. Historically, a president’s first term in office is a time of change in tax policy and with a Democratic majority in both houses, this may be particularly true for the Obama administration. You may consider details of this briefing in your end of year tax planning.

Recent court decisions have opened the door for 401(k) fiduciary liability. This article from the Journal of Retirement Planning discusses important considerations and best practices for Code Sec. 401(k) fiduciaries.

Contractors engaged in real property construction activities must comply with the rules and regulations relating to their sales and use tax obligations. Although these rules may be confusing at times, generally the requirements are uniform among the states.

As this article from the Journal of State Taxation explains, in cases where a contractor purchases materials and then manufactures or assembles these materials into another article for use in its real property construction activities, uniform tax treatment is not present.

The IRS has recently addressed the issue of who is required to file Form 926 when a partnership makes a transfer described in Code Sec. 367(a) and such partnership is owned by other entities, such as partnerships, C corporations, S corporations or trusts or estates. The question raised in these transactions is whether the partnership, the partners in the partnership or the partners/shareholders/beneficiaries of a partner are required to file Form 926.

The answer can be found in the interaction of Code Secs. 367(a) and 6038B and the regulations under those sections, which provide rules relating to transfers by partnerships and other entities to foreign corporations in transactions covered by Code Sec. 367(a). This column, Outbound Asset Transfers, is featured in the September-October, 2008 issue of the International Tax Journal.