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Abstract: 

What will we ever do without Dave Barry’s tax commentary? For those of you who have been living in a cave since New Year’s Eve, Dave Barry announced that his January 23, 2005, Sunday column would be his last, at least for the time being. That means that this year we will not be reading Dave’s column about taxes. We do not pretend we can fill this void, but we can’t help wondering what Dave would have to say about the American Jobs Creation Act (hereinafter generally “AJCA”). Dave noted that the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act, known as “EGTRRA,” sounded like “the name of a giant radioactive chicken that destroys Tokyo.” AJCA may have a friendlier sound than EGTRRA, but anyone who focuses on its complexity would call it Godzilla, because it is a monster. Searching in vain among its provisions for a common unifying theme, the authors focus in this article on those AJCA provisions that may affect middle income taxpayers. These run the gamut from those affecting such relatively common events as purchasing goods to those arising out of such relatively unusual occurrences as filing a job discrimination lawsuit. This article analyzes five AJCA provisions in detail: 1. The deduction of state and local general sales taxes; 2. The above-the-line deduction for costs incurred in employment and civil rights actions; 3. The exclusion of gain from sale of a principal residence acquired in a like-kind exchange; 4. Changes to the charitable donation rules; 5. Changes to the expensing limits for sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

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Affiliations:  1: University of Arizona Rogers College of Law; 2: Widener University School of Law; 3: Nova Southeastern School of Law.