Chances are that if you have student loans, you need every bit of extra cash that you can get. Did you realize that your student loans might be able to generate some cash for you?
Under certain circumstances, you may be able to save on your tax bill by deducting the interest that you pay
Federal Income Taxes
Claiming dependents on your taxes is usually a fairly straightforward procedure, but in some cases, more than one person (or couple filing jointly) will claim someone as a dependent, muddying the process. The most common example is when divorced or separated parents both want to claim their children as dependents for tax purposes.
Dependents can
Your smartphone is probably full of fun apps, but we have one more app to add to help you deal with a painful task: your taxes. Did you know that the IRS has a free smartphone app to help taxpayers handle basic tax-related functions? They do, and it has been in existence since 2011.
The
Nightmare: you’ve been called to a meeting with an IRS agent to discuss your tax return, and you can’t afford professional help. Did you know that you could have someone help you at low cost or even free? It’s one of your rights as a U.S. taxpayer.
You may know about the Bill of Rights,
What will you do with your tax refund? We hope you have something fun in mind, but a new survey suggests that you might use it to pay bills instead.
The Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) recently released baseline survey results for their U.S. Financial Health Pulse, a study designed to assess and track
Preparing a tax return is not most people’s idea of a good time. As a result, we tend to procrastinate and wait until the last minute to file our returns. However, there are good reasons to start preparing your tax return as soon as you have all the necessary documents:
1. Reduce the Chance of
One of the most controversial provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was the limit it placed on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. The TCJA capped the deduction on combined payments for state and local property, sales, and income taxes at $10,000 beginning in the 2018 tax year.
According to the
Do the words “tax return” send shivers down your spine because you always end up with a gigantic headache and little or no tax refund at the end? Maybe the problem is in preparation and planning – or lack of it. Tax law is complicated, and it takes a coordinated, sustained effort to optimize your
Identity thieves have many ways to steal your money – including fraudulent tax returns. They file a return in your name as early as possible to beat your legitimate return, with fake financial data designed to claim a large refund. You won’t realize this until your tax return is denied because there’s already been a
The holiday season is full of plans and activities that make December incredibly hectic. If you are the average American, tax considerations and financial adjustments are pretty low on your holiday to-do list. However, you are not the average American — you enjoy saving money, are diligent in seeking ways to save, and excellent at
Uh-oh. You didn’t pay your taxes by the deadline. You’re facing late payment penalties – but, believe it or not, you may be able to convince the IRS to waive those penalties.
It’s not well publicized, but the IRS does have a First Time Penalty Abatement (FTA) Policy. The FTA only applies for a single
Did you miss the April 17 tax deadline for 2018? If so, you probably filed for and received a six-month extension from the IRS. Don’t relax too much, because October will be here before you know it.
The IRS offers a series of tips to help taxpayers avoid common errors when filing their taxes, whether
The term “administrative offset” brings to mind meaningless governmental jargon. It is governmental jargon – but if you are affected, it’s not meaningless at all.
In layman’s terms, administrative offset is the government’s way of applying money that would normally be owed to you (such as tax refunds and certain Social Security benefits) to outstanding
Who wants simpler taxes? Most of us do, assuming we also keep more money in the process.
Starting in 2018, homeowners are more likely to have simpler tax returns – but they may need to make similar tax calculations to ensure a lower tax bill.
Tax simplification was part of the pitch to sell the
Retirement has finally arrived. You’re ready to start drawing on your retirement income sources. Enjoy this new phase of your life.
Unfortunately, you haven’t been able to retire from taxes – and your taxes will enter a new phase as well. You don’t have an employer to hold out taxes on your salary anymore. You’re
A summer job is a great way for students to earn some extra money while building a resume for the future and learning new things about the working world. Typically, one of the hardest lessons for students to deal with is income tax. Working students may say, “Why is so much of my paycheck withheld?
You anticipated a large refund on your taxes to pay off some bills and put some money away in a rainy-day fund. Unfortunately, the money never showed up. What happened?
Your refund may have gone toward an unpaid bill selected by the government – your unpaid student loan.
Your federal student loan is
What goes up must come down – when considering the effects of gravity. That principle doesn’t typically apply to taxes. In the rare cases where taxes do go down, other taxes tend to go up to compensate government coffers.
Because state taxes are often linked to the federal tax code in different ways, changes in
The recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) represents one of the biggest changes to the tax code in many years. Will the Internal Revenue Service be up to the challenge of enforcing these changes?
For the last five years, the IRS has been examining fewer and fewer returns. In calendar year 2016, 1.1 million
You are experiencing sweet satisfaction knowing that your taxes were filed on time. That is, until you realize that you took a deduction when you did not qualify for it, or forgot to claim an important tax credit that could save you hundreds of dollars … or until Congress suddenly resurrects some expired tax breaks,
Did your paycheck increase due to the recent tax cuts? Many Americans saw a change in their take-home pay beginning in February once the IRS issued its new tax withholding tables.
Businesses adjusted the withholding for their employees according to the new tables. To avoid a tax surprise in 2019, you may need to make
Most individuals in the U.S. know to keep their tax returns for three years in case the IRS decides to audit them, but few know that there are exceptions to that time limit. Some people throw away their oldest return when they file their new one annually, which is normally okay. However, in the following
When your identity is stolen, you have so many potential issues to deal with — changing passwords, closing accounts, dealing with fraudulent charges, and placing fraud alerts with the credit bureaus — that you may forget about potential tax fraud. Armed with your personal information, identity thieves can file a fraudulent tax return in your
It is hard to beat the convenience of a credit card for purchases, but does that same convenience make it worth paying your taxes by credit card? It might, but that depends on several factors involving money and time. “Your credit card is usually a high-interest option, but it is an option,” opines Betterment Head
Waiting until the last minute to pay your taxes can cost you if you are expecting a refund, since the government hangs on to your money and receives more interest on it. However, if you owe money to the government, that same principle applies to you. Why not wait until the last minute?
There is
Have you ever cheated on your taxes? If so, you are in the minority – but you aren’t alone, either.
A new Credit Karma survey finds that 6% of American taxpayers have knowingly cheated on their taxes. The real total may be higher, since the survey only captures those who are willing to admit it.
A Closer Look at the New Tax Law’s Effects The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) promised an income tax cut for most Americans. Is that promise less likely to be fulfilled if you live in certain states?
The Tax Policy Center (TPC) released a recent report addressing the TCJA’s effect on individual states and
If you are nowhere near ready to file your taxes as the deadline approaches, you may file an extension with the IRS that gives you up to six more months to file your taxes. Filing an extension will spare you from late filing penalties — 5% of the amount of tax you owe for each
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) budget has been cut by $900 million
since 2010 and it now has 21,000 less employees than it did then, making IRS customer service challenging to say the least. The latest figures show that the IRS subjected 8.8 million taxpayers to “courtesy disconnects” through the 2015 tax-filing season that ended
Contributing to a retirement account can be difficult for lower income households, but one can argue that it is even more important for those families to take advantage of all the retirement savings options that are possible. One of the lesser-known options applies directly to lower-income families – the credit for qualified retirement savings contributions,