Taxpayer's Social Security Numbers or Employer Identification Numbers may be truncated to just the last four digits on 1099 series forms issued for years 2009 and 2010. The Internal Revenue Service is launching a pilot program (Notice 2009-93) designed to help combat identity theft, and financial institutions and other businesses that send out tax documents in the Form 1098 series, Form 1099 series or Form 5498 series can participate. Truncated numbers will appear on statements issued to taxpayers; institutions are still required to report the full taxpayer identification number on forms sent to the IRS for processing.

Starting in the year 2011, payment transaction processors will be required to report to the Internal Revenue Service the gross sales transactions for their merchant accounts. The IRS recently published proposed regulations as part of their effort to implement this new requirement to report credit card sales. This is going to impact small businesses and entrepreneurs if they accept credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, Paypal or similar electronic payments.

Here's what we know so far. Anyone who has a merchant account, Paypal account or similar payment processing account will receive Form 1099-K from their service provider. (Here's a draft version of Form 1099-K so you can see what it will look like.) This new Form 1099-K is required unless the account-holder has total payment transactions for the year that do not exceed $20,000, and the total number of transactions does not exceed 200. The Form 1099-K will report gross sales transactions. The figures reported on the 1099-K will not be adjusted for transaction fees, refunds, or chargebacks.

Like the well-known Form 1099-MISC, entrepreneurs will need to make sure the numbers on the form are accurate and provide a copy of this form along with other tax documents given to their tax professional.

The Internal Revenue Service is trying to deliver some $123.5 million in refund checks that have been returned to the agency by the Postal Service.

Individuals can check the status of their refund check online using the IRS's Where's My Refund? application. You can also call a special refund hotline at 1-800-829-1954.

The most common reason for a refund check to be sent back to the IRS is that the taxpayer has moved and not left a forwarding address with the Postal Service. You can update your address information with the IRS by filing out Form 8822, Change of Address (pdf, 2 pages including instructions) and mailing this to the appropriate IRS Service Center (addresses are listed on page two of the form).

Congress has passed and President Obama has signed into law HR 3548, the Worker, Homeownership & Business Assistance Act of 2009. This law extends unemployment compensation benefits. "The extension provides for 14 weeks of extended benefit coverage for every state and an additional 6 weeks, for a total of 20 weeks, in high unemployment states where unemployment is over 8.5%," reports Alison Doyle, About.com's Guide to Job Searching.

The law provides a number of tax law changes as well. Some extend or enhance current tax breaks, while other changes are designed as revenue raisers. Here's highlights of the tax changes. Read more...