Lower tax rates for all, rebate checks for some
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If you get one of these checks, be sure to hang onto the stub. You'll need to refer to it when you do get around to doing your taxes next year.

And the increased credit applies only to the 2003 and 2004 tax years. In 2005, the amount is scheduled to drop to $700 per child and resume its incremental climb back to the $1,000 mark in 2010.

Love, honor, lower taxes
About half of the married couples that file jointly find that they pay more income taxes than their single counterparts. This so-called marriage penalty is particularly troublesome for couples where both spouses work.

Congress finally came up with a plan a few years ago to ease the penalty. The only problem: The fix wouldn't start until 2005. The new law accelerates the relief.

Effective immediately, the standard deduction that joint filers can claim would be twice that allowed single taxpayers. And the amount of a couple's income that falls in the 15 percent bracket would be double the income range of a single filer. In essence, these changes tax a couple's joint income the same as if they each were filing as single taxpayers.

This increased relief, however, is short-lived. It is effective for 2003 and 2004 only. The law will revert to the earlier version of phasing in the marriage-penalty relief over several years unless Congress makes further changes in the next couple of years.

Investment enhancements
The centerpiece of the president's original tax bill was the elimination of taxes on dividend income. He didn't get that, but Congress did agree to ease the tax burden on dividends as well as capital gains.

Currently, if you hold an asset for more than a year any gain you make on the sale is taxed at a substantially lower rate than your regular income. For most investors, those who are in the top four tax brackets, this long-term rate is 20 percent. Lower-income investors pay capital gains at 10 percent.

The new law lowers the long-term capital gains rate to 15 percent for most taxpayers, 5 percent for those in the lower tax brackets.

What about those dividends? For the most part, they now will be taxed at the same 5 and 15 percent rates as long-term capital gains.

The investment tax changes are effective for tax years 2003 through 2008. In 2008, the 5-percent rate drops to zero. On Jan. 1, 2009, the previous capital gains rates are scheduled to return.