March 15 – 2012 calendar-year corporation income tax returns are due. March 15 – Deadline for calendar-year corporations to elect S status for 2013.

The 2010 health care reform legislation included several provisions that go into effect this year. Among them is the increase in Medicare taxes for taxpayers with incomes above certain levels. Here are some of the changes that could affect you. Medical expense itemized deduction. The 7.5% income threshold for deducting unreimbursed medical expenses increases to 10% for taxpayers under age 65. Those 65 and older may continue to use the 7.5% threshold through the year 2016.

Every business should give serious consideration to how the company would deal with the death, disability, or departure of one of the owners. Like a will, a buy/sell agreement spells out how assets and other business interests will be distributed should an owner quit, become disabled, or die. Without such an agreement, complications arising from ownership succession may capsize an otherwise thriving company. The remaining owners might be forced to share management and profits with unskilled

The IRS is reducing the recordkeeping required for the home-office deduction, effective for 2013. Taxpayers who qualify may use a new optional deduction calculated at $5 a square foot for up to 300 square feet of an area in a home that is used regularly and exclusively for business. The deduction is capped at $1,500 a year. Taxpayers opting for the simplified deduction cannot depreciate a portion of the home as they can under the other

The IRS had to delay the start of this year’s tax filing season until it completed programming changes made necessary by the late passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (signed into law on January 2, 2013). Normally, farmers and fishermen are not required to make quarterly estimated tax payments if they file their tax return and pay taxes due by March 1 of the following year. The filing delay created by the new