House prohibits tax-planning
patents.
The House of Representatives recently voted 220-175 to overhaul
patent rules and place a ban on tax-planning method patents.
H.R. 1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, contained a provision
that would protect accounting firms from lawsuits over tax-planning
methods.
The bill defines "tax-planning method" as a plan,
strategy, technique or scheme designed to reduce, minimize or defer a
taxpayer's tax liability. However, the bill did not include the use
of tax preparation software or other tools used "to perform or
model mathematical calculations or prepare tax or information
returns."
Read more at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?dl10:h.r.01908:.
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