For tax year 2006, the alternative minimum tax (the dreaded AMT) exemption rises to $62,500 for a married couple filing a joint return and to $42,500 for single persons and heads of household. Don’t get too excited, though, as those amounts are slated to drop in 2007.
Kelly Phillips Erb, known as Taxgirl, is a tax attorney, writer, and speaker who explains taxes, IRS news, financial crime, scams, and the law in plain English.
Making last minute Christmas purchases? If you’re planning on paying your Christmas bills with your tax refund check, you may want to think again: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced earlier that some taxpayer will see delays at the open of the 2017 tax season. A new law requires the IRS to hold refunds tied…
I’ve received a number of emails from angry taxpayers who allege that third party preparers like H&R Block and tax software developers like Turbo Tax failed to properly advise that certain kinds of transactions (such as refund anticipation loans or paying filing fees from tax refunds) would result in a paper check versus direct deposit…
This week, I’m letting my readers take over and tell you what they think about the expiring Bush tax cuts. As always, I think background and context are important. So here’s a quick primer on what’s happening and why… The so-called Bush tax cuts are a series of tax breaks which were enacted in 2001…
One out of every 45 children – some 1.6 million – in the United States is homeless, according to a report released by the National Center on Family Homelessness. The majority of the children are under age 7, about the same age as my youngest children. Even more grim: almost 40% of the homeless population…
When it comes to Super Bowl, folks think chili, beer and commercials. They also think gambling. It’s one of those games that inspires a lot of big money, sure, but also enormous numbers of side bets and the ubiquitous office pools. What does gambling have to do with tax? Plenty. Gambling winnings, no matter whether…
Just a few months after I reported seeing a bump in scam e-mails purporting to be from the IRS, a new version is making the rounds. The new version is very similar to the prior version. As before, the header is a variation on Federal Tax payment canceled or Your Federal Tax Transaction. The ones…