“Honey, our taxes are just too high. We’re moving to Alaska,” said no one, ever.
Nevertheless, a new study from the moving assistance website HireAHelper.com found that your state tax burden could change drastically with an interstate move. According to the study, if you move from the District of Columbia to Tennessee, your collective state
Taxes
What do you plan to do with your tax refund? Maybe you have your eye on upgrading your phone, buying a new computer, or splurging on a long overdue vacation.
Have you considered using your tax refund to build your credit?
Granted, credit building doesn’t compare with lying on the beach enjoying the sunshine, but
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
Procrastinator alert: your taxes are due! If you are nowhere near ready as the scary 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
How many people like the IRS? According to Facebook, it’s almost 110,000! Does it bother you that the Internal Revenue Service is more popular than you are?
If you regularly use social media outlets to stay in touch with friends and follow people or businesses that you find interesting and relevant, consider adding the Internal
Can you eliminate debt by settling with a creditor to pay less than you owed and still come out on the short end? It is possible, based on potential tax liabilities. Not only that, but “…any time an account is settled for less than you originally owe, it’s going to hurt your credit scores,” cautions
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could deduct your credit card debt from your taxes? For most Americans, that’s just a dream that will never come true. However, some circumstances allow you to deduct some credit card debt – all related to using your card for business purposes.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
You’ve completed your 2018 tax return, and you don’t like the results. How did you end up owing so much money? There’s nothing you can do about it now … or is there?
While the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) made sweeping changes to the tax laws, it didn’t offer any retroactive means
A stable income is critical to a comfortable retirement – as is limiting the amount of that income that you give to Uncle Sam. Maximizing retirement income and minimizing taxes requires advance planning – as illustrated in these seven tips.
1. Use a Roth IRA Because Roth IRAs are funded with post-tax dollars, they are
Let’s assume that you drew the short straw on the 2018 tax cuts, and you owe Uncle Sam this year. How do you plan to pay? There are plenty of ways other than the old-fashioned check submitted with a paper tax return.
If you file electronically, why not pay electronically? Electronic Funds Withdrawal (EFW) is
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
Tax liens are claims made on your property by a government entity for failure to pay your taxes. A lien doesn’t mean your property will be seized – it just means that the agency applying the lien has the first right to your property compared to other creditors.
A tax lien on your credit report
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
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 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
Our prior article, 5 Steps To Be Your Own Mogul – Part 1, covers the first three steps to manage your finances like a business. Below we present the final two steps.
4. Forecasting
If you have performed the budget exercise and broken your expenses out into categories, you can start to highlight areas
Why not take some financial pointers from the business world and apply them to your personal finances? Whether you are a party of one or a family of four, it pays to be fiscally agile. Some of the longest financial plays in the business world today are small businesses that perennially stay afloat and drive
By Eric Olsen, Executive Director, HELPS Nonprofit Law Firm
Federal law protects Social Security and retirement incomes from garnishment by almost all collectors. But what about the IRS and student loan debts? The IRS and public student loan lenders can and occasionally will garnish 15% of a senior’s Social Security income. There is much information
You have several credit cards and a couple of killer rewards programs. Why not put them to good use and charge every purchase that you can?
It’s smart to get the most out of your credit cards, but do so within a budget and with one thought in mind – “Is a credit card the
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
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