Few things are more frightening than opening your mailbox and finding a letter from the Internal Revenue Service. You may wrack your brain wondering what you’ve done to receive an IRS notice. But there’s no need to pretend it didn’t arrive, or go on the lam.
Relax. The IRS sends out millions of letters each
Federal Income Taxes
In a recent survey, more people than not believe that President Trump will lower business taxes, but the same wasn’t true for their own personal taxes. On other critical issues in the news, Americans are torn, but not Trump voters.
As our government acts on repealing ObamaCare, with restructuring our antiquated tax system on deck,
You have bought an expensive new toy in expectation of your tax refund, and are now desperately waiting for the refund to arrive before the repo man and his large friend Vito come to visit. How can you find out the status of your refund at any time to estimate whether you need to make
It all looks so obvious in hindsight. Make a $500 deposit and your money will grow 18% in 10 days. You can receive a $1,500 loan by MoneyGram if you pay $170 for fees and insurance. A driveway sealer happens to be driving by and offers to coat your driveway for a low price. You
It can be difficult to tell myth from fact when it comes to tax refunds. The IRS would like to help you by clarifying some tax return myths, and we are happy to help the IRS achieve their goal.
Let’s start by clearing up the 5 top myths about tax returns as listed by the
Did you end up owing a boatload of money to the IRS at tax time without having the money to pay for it, or did you receive a large refund? While the former is a lot more unpleasant than the latter, they are both symptoms of bad tax planning. A big refund feels good until
For two years in a row, Americans are going to get a little extra time to file their taxes, thanks to a holiday that may be completely unknown to you. In 2017, the tax-filing deadline will be April 18 thanks to Emancipation Day.
Emancipation Day is a legal holiday in the District of Columbia, held
Instead of enjoying a tax refund this year, you are surprised to find that you owe Uncle Sam. Even worse, you do not have the money to pay these surprise taxes. What can you do?
One thing you definitely do not want to do is ignore the tax bill. That will only make your situation
Examples of really bad ideas: Forgetting your spouse’s birthday or your anniversary, do-it-yourself brain surgery, and forgetting to file your federal tax return or pay your federal taxes. You may be short on the cash to pay your taxes, but there are better ways to address your tax problem than avoiding it entirely.
The IRS
Are you a procrastinator who waits until the very last moment to file your taxes? Thanks to Emancipation Day, the filing deadline is April 18, 2017, to file your taxes for the 2016 tax year. That gives you a few more days to consider last-minute ways to lower your taxes.
Start by reviewing your possible
It is rumored that some of the wealthiest Americans manage to pay less in taxes than some of their employees. They achieve this by one of two methods: doing their own financial and tax planning or paying someone to do it for them. Simple, isn’t it?
The point is that the rich are able to
If you are preparing to sell your home, taxes are probably not the first thing on your mind — and they probably shouldn’t be. However, when tax time does roll around, you need to understand what effects your home sale will have on your taxes.
Generally, profits from the sale of your primary home are
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 retirement savings tax credit. Note that
When people think of tax shelters, they sometimes think of Swiss bank accounts, shady overseas investments, or fraudulent or questionable activities by wealthy but unscrupulous businessmen. That is an unfair characterization.
The TurboTax website sums it up nicely – “A tax shelter is any legal strategy (that) you employ to reduce the amount of income
The Dirty Dozen — a 1967 war movie starring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, and Jim Brown, or a list of the top twelve tax scams as identified by the Internal Revenue Service? Would you believe that it’s both?
Each year, the IRS releases a list of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams to watch out for
Your home is your castle, and it is also a source of tax deductions. Yet, every year, Americans let these potential tax deductions pass by, not realizing how to take advantage of them.
IRS Publication 530, titled “Tax Information for Homeowners”, can fill you in on the deductions that are available to you for the
One of the tax deductions available to individuals and couples who own their home is the mortgage interest deduction. This deduction can save homeowners who owe taxes a substantial amount, especially if they have a mortgage with a high interest rate. An announcement by the IRS last week will provide some homeowners with even larger
Donald Trump’s taxes and his net worth are subjects of great mystery and speculation, so why should his income be any different? Again, The Donald does not disappoint when it comes to controversy.
In his financial disclosures with the FEC in 2015, Donald Trump listed $362 million in income for 2014. In a press release
According to a report by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, illegal immigrants in the United States pay in almost $12 billion dollars in taxes annually. This amount includes sales, property, income, and excise taxes that go to local and state budgets. The findings contradict the talking points of many politicians seeking support for
One great way to start a fight is to initiate a debate about what constitutes a fair share of taxes. Should they be progressive, regressive, or neutral? An even better way to phrase the question is: Should taxes be based on a proportionate share of income, consumption, or some other property?
Those are the basic
Every year, the Tax Foundation compares the total amount of taxes paid in America and the amount of spending on the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter. In most recent years, the Tax Foundation has concluded that Americans spend more on taxes than on necessities — and 2015 is no different.
The Tax Foundation projections
Tax Freedom Day is the day when our collective income as a nation is enough to pay our collective federal and state taxes for the year. Considered in that respect, all of the income we earn after that point may be considered “tax-free.”
Tax Freedom Day is calculated in April of each year using projections
Good news: you finally got that raise. Bad news: your paycheck still isn’t as big as your thought it would be. The problem is deciphering your pay stub; where does all that money go that doesn’t go to you? Don’t worry! Pay stubs are pretty easy to read with some common sense and a little