Simplification Creates Complexity Do you love getting a big tax refund? You shouldn’t. You paid more than you owed and gave the government an interest-free loan when you could have been putting that money to better use.
Believe it or not, the government agrees. The IRS prefers that you pay the exact amount of taxes
Tax Laws
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,
It’s been almost a year since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought sweeping changes to the American tax system. Since there have been just a few headlines coming out of Washington, DC, since the TCJA was signed, we offer a reminder of changes affecting your tax returns for the 2018 tax year (filed
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
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
In the wake of the housing crisis, it became significantly harder to get a jumbo mortgage due to the risk factors involved. Jumbo mortgages have been making a comeback since then, but they now face a different style of threat – disincentives for high-end homeownership created by the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Did you hear that there are tax changes for 2018? Unless you’ve been in a coma or vacationing in North Korea over the last several months, you probably know that recent sweeping changes were made to the tax laws. However, you may not be sure how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and other tax
After weeks of negotiations between the House and the Senate, Congress finally passed tax legislation designed to lower taxes and stimulate the economy. President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Friday, December 22 – right before leaving for the Christmas holiday.
As a homeowner, did this bill leave financial presents under your
Does your home state encourage or discourage partying? A simple way to assess the partying tolerance level is through “sin taxes.” Granted, low sin taxes do not necessarily equate to more partying, but they certainly don’t hurt.
Alcohol and tobacco taxes are huge cash generators for governments, adding $7.04 billion and $18.17 billion respectively to
Are you planning on joining the gig economy and becoming self-employed? Are you embarking on retirement after years with a traditional employer? We wish you the best, and, along with the IRS, we remind you to pay your quarterly income taxes.
Without an employer to submit payments regularly out of your paycheck, you are now
You’ve received a letter from the IRS regarding an audit. What is your plan? Assuming the fetal position? Heavy drinking? Fleeing the country? Spontaneous combustion? None of these actions is necessary. Simply stay calm and assess the situation objectively.
The letter you receive may be one of three types:
Adjustment Letter – This notifies you
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
It is easy to lump exemptions, deductions and credits into the same basket of tax-saving mechanisms, but they are distinctly different. Here are the simplified differences:
What They Reduce – Deductions and exemptions both reduce your taxable income, and credits reduce your overall tax bill. With reference to Form 1040, exemptions and deductions all take
Change is the word for 2017 in many respects. While the incoming Trump administration promises many changes related to taxes, there are already changes written into law that will affect your returns for the 2017 tax year (returns that you file in April 2018), and a few others affecting your 2016 taxes that take effect
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte has introduced a new draft of the Online Sales Simplification Act (OSSA) that, if passed, would create an online sales tax that is much less complicated than the current method for online retailers to collect taxes. The way internet sales taxes are currently collected depends on whether the retailer
The Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare if you prefer) has probably had a significant impact on your health insurance. Did you realize that Obamacare has had an effect on your taxes as well? Here are a few of the tax ramifications of the ACA.
Individual Mandate – If you are aware of only one
If you ever wanted to achieve the level of wealth that allows you to hide a large amount of it within the iconic Swiss bank account, you are now officially out of luck. Feel free to target great wealth, but do not expect to be able to evade taxes by parking your assets offshore in
Very few, if any, Americans like our current tax system but there is little agreement on how to change it. The fault lines are usually along the same philosophical arguments.
Progressivity – What is the proper definition of “fair share” of taxes? Is it based more on pure percentages, where everyone pays the same percentage