On December 17, 2010, President Obama signed into law the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010” (the “Tax Relief Act”). The Tax Relief Act is an extensive tax package that includes, among other items, an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for an additional two years, estate tax relief, a 2% cut in employee-paid payroll taxes and self-employment taxes for 2011, new incentives for businesses to invest in machinery and equipment, and a myriad of retroactively resuscitated and extended tax breaks for businesses and individuals. The overall theme of the Tax Relief Act; however, is its temporary nature. The vast majority of the provisions in the Tax Relief Act are only effective for the next two years, pushing the ultimate fate of the Bush-era tax cuts into 2012, the next presidential election year. Some of the key elements of the Tax Relief Act are discussed in detail below.