10 new tax laws you need to know (Page 1 of 5)

10 new tax laws you need to know :
By Kay Bell � Bankrate.com


The major new laws of 2005 were prompted by Mother Nature.
The violent hurricane season wreaked havoc on millions of coastal residents, motivating lawmakers to enact measures to help out the storm victims. In the process, they also added some storm-related breaks for the rest of the country's taxpayers.
The Internal Revenue Service also issued a couple of rulings that many taxpayers will welcome, such as increased mileage deduction rates and an easier way to put off the inevitable task of filing.
But other changes, most notably the new tax definition of a child, will cause some filers extra effort and potentially costly headaches.
There's also one welcome change that's due simply to the calendar. This year, April 15 falls on a Saturday, pushing the filing deadline to the next business day, Monday, April 17.
Now that you have all that spare time, let's put it to use by looking at 10 tax changes that could make a difference on your 2005 return and to your 2006 tax planning.