In writing my weekly column this year, I didn t lack for ideas. There were plenty of new developments. After due deliberation, here are my choices for the three biggest tax stories of 2009, including one that should have been told by now but hasn t been.

Read about them here Expect another bushel load of tax hikes if healthcare reform passes next year (quite likely, in my opinion) and yet another if climate change legislation is enacted (not so likely).

2. Home Buyer Credits Shore Up the Housing Market

One of the many goodies in the stimulus act was an extension and expansion of the so-called first-time home buyer tax credit, which can be as much as $8,000 for qualified home purchases between Jan. 1, 2009 and Nov. 30, 2009. Another law passed in November extended the deal again, to cover purchases that are closed or under contract by April 30, 2010. (Transactions under contract on that date must be closed by June 30, 2010.)

The November law also allows an existing homeowner to claim a credit of as much as $6,500 for buying a replacement principal residence. This new existing homeowner credit is available for purchases after Nov. 6, 2009, as long as they are closed or under contract by April 30, 2010. (Once again, transactions under contract on April 30 must close by June 30, 2010.) Read more about the extension here.

There s no question these credits have encouraged home sales and propped up prices. But for how long and at what cost?

Personally, I m not happy knowing my tax dollars are being used to help some unknown person buy a new home, especially when that person can have a rather high income and still qualify for a juicy credit. Just as bad, the homebuyer credits are fully refundable. That means they can be collected in cash by folks who don t even pay any taxes. In this case, the so-called tax credit is really just disguised welfare being laundered through the tax system. Were we not promised a more transparent government? Yeah, right.

The bottom line: Home buyer credits can go to some people who don t need the money (bad idea) and to others as under-the-table welfare payments (equally bad idea). When you take a close look, it s an ugly picture.

3. Congress Blows Off Fixing the Estate Tax

Did you know the federal estate tax is scheduled to completely disappear on Jan. 1? It s true! The way the law reads right now, the tax will go away for 2010, but only for that one year. In 2011 and beyond, it will return with much harsher rules than we have today.

This one-year vanishing act and subsequent resurrection with sharper teeth has been on the books since 2001, but I never thought it would be allowed to happen. I was sure Congress would take action sometime this year to permanently continue the current $3.5 million estate tax exemption or maybe even increase it by a million or two. Once again, I was dead wrong. After becoming exhausted by passing their two versions of health-care reform, our pals in the House and the Senate fled the premises without doing anything about the estate tax. They won t return until next year when the tax is officially dead and gone.

At this point, I m almost afraid to guess what s in store. Most likely, Congress will reinstate the estate tax sometime in January or February. However, there are few precedents for imposing a tax retroactively (doing so has always been considered dirty pool). Therefore, it s remotely possible that estates of well-off individuals who die early next year could turn out to be exempt from any federal estate tax hit while estates of similarly situated folks who die later in the year could get hammered. What a mess! What should you do if you have a hefty estate? Consider dying as fast as you can after 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1. I m kidding (sort of).

Meanwhile, Stay Tuned for Next Year s Action

As I said at the beginning, the federal income tax scene for this year remained taxpayer-friendly. Apparently, the same will be true for 2010. But there are bound to be lots of changes that will be scheduled to take effect in later years. And the unsettled estate tax situation needs immediate attention. Stay tuned. As always, I ll do my best to keep you informed.