Posts tagged as:

Congress

Tax Trivia Giveaway #1: Top Tax Rates

30 January 2012

Our first tax trivia question is: In 1913, Congress levied a one percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000, with a six percent surtax on incomes above $500,000. As the nation sought greater revenue to finance the World War I effort, the top rate of the income tax rose considerably. What was the top income [...]

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Ask the taxgirl: I Forgot Schedule M

26 January 2012

Taxpayer asks: I forgot to include the Schedule M with my free e-file. Should I do an amended return or ? Thank you. taxgirl says: Nope. There’s no need to amend because… there is no Schedule M for individual taxpayers for the 2011 tax year. The Schedule M was used to figure the Making Work [...]

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Taxes and the State of the Union

25 January 2012

Last night was the State of the Union speech as delivered by President Obama. Traditionally, the State of the Union speech is delivered once a year to both houses of Congress. For the last hundred years or so, the speech has been delivered in January of each year and is the President’s opportunity to address Congress [...]

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Taxpayers Suggest Resolutions for Congress in 2012

1 January 2012

It’s the New Year and sadly, the same old Congress. With that in mind, I thought that Congress could use a little help with their New Year’s resolutions for 2012, so a couple of days ago, I posed this question on my blog: What’s on your tax and financial #wishlist for Congress in 2012? Here’s [...]

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Congress Needs Some Advice in 2012

30 December 2011

The New Year is almost here! And Congress is still, well, Congress. Clearly, they need a little direction for 2012 so I thought I’d ask you, my readers, what you hope to see happen next year and we’ll make a contest out of it. So since Congress is so fond of pork… the prize is [...]

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What You Can Buy With Your Payroll Tax Cut From Congress

25 December 2011

After all of the drama, Congress managed to push through a payroll tax cut extension just before the holidays. The payroll tax cut was extended for two months, saving the average taxpayer a grand total of $166. These days, that won’t get you very far. Depending on where you live, it works out to: 43 [...]

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Congress Takes a Holiday, Passes Payroll Tax Cut Extension Anyway

23 December 2011

Congress may be on holiday but they still managed to get something done. And by something, I mean nothing. But they want to pretend that they did something so we’ll let them have their moment. The House and the Senate passed a bill that would extend the payroll tax cuts for a lousy two months. [...]

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Boehner Claims Compromise on Payroll Tax Cut Extension

22 December 2011

As if we didn’t need further evidence that Congress is phoning it in these days … House Speaker Boehner (R-OH) backtracked Thursday afternoon and announced a “compromise” two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, two days after the House voted to reject it. Let me break this down for you. First, to the average taxpayer, [...]

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Congress to Taxpayers: We Give Up

21 December 2011

For the second time in so many months (remember the debt ceiling deadline debacle?), Congress has thrown up its hands and walked away. After failing to reach a workable compromise on the payroll tax cut extension, members of the House left town for the holidays. The payroll tax cuts are set to expire before the [...]

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IRS Moves Ahead Assuming No Change in 2012

8 December 2011

This week, the IRS released Notice 1036 (downloads as a pdf) outlining the percentage method income tax withholding tables and the Social Security withholding rate for 2012. The Notice assumes no tax deal for 2012 but does include this warning: At the time this notice was prepared for release, Congress was discussing a possible change to [...]

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