Understanding Your Forms: Form 1098, Mortgage Interest Statement
Here’s what you should know about the form 1098, Mortgage Interest Statement.
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Understanding Your Forms: W-2, Wage & Tax Statement
By now, you probably have a stack of tax forms from employers, banks and other issuers on your desk. Sometimes, those tax forms go straight to a tax professional, unopened. Other times, taxpayers may dutifully open those forms and type the information, box for box, into tax preparation software. In both cases, it’s not unusual…
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Taxes From A To Z (2015): H Is For Household Employees
It’s my annual “Taxes from A to Z” series! Next up: H Is For Household Employees It’s easy to think that household employees are just for the Downton Abbey set but that’s not true. A household employee is anyone who performs household work and can be classed as an employee because you exercise control over…
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Taxes From A To Z (2015): G Is For Gross Income Test
It’s my annual “Taxes from A to Z” series! Next up: G is for Gross Income Test Personal exemptions are beneficial because they reduce your total taxable income. You generally can claim one personal exemption for yourself and, if you are married, one for your spouse. The exemption for your spouse is just called an…
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Taxes From A To Z (2015): F Is For FIFO
It’s my annual “Taxes from A to Z” series! Next up: F Is For FIFO When you buy a capital asset, the price that you pay for that asset is considered your basis. You use that price to figure any gain or loss at sale. So, let’s say that you buy a share of stock…
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Tax Auditor Dies At His Desk, Not Found For Two Days
Working in the tax profession can sometimes be lonely – with long hours and lots of document intensive, as opposed to people intensive, work to do – but a Finnish tax office found out just how lonely it can be. A tax official in Finland died at his desk while checking tax returns – and…
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German Bank Will Pay $1.45 Billion To Settle Sanctions, Money Laundering Charges
The international dollars keep rolling in. Yet another bank has agreed to pay a fine in response to ongoing investigations into foreign accounts. Commerzbank AG, headquartered in Frankfurt, and its U.S. branch, Commerzbank AG New York Branch (called Commerz New York), have agreed to a deferred prosecution agreement which calls for, among other things, the…
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Bogus Email Making Rounds Asking For IRS Identification Verification
With a month to go before Tax Day, about 2 of every 3 taxpayers have yet to file their federal income tax returns. That means pitches from tax software and tax professionals are heating up. And, of course, identity thieves are ramping up their efforts to snare taxpayers, too. This week, I received yet another…
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IRS Owes Taxpayers More Than $1 Billion In Unclaimed Tax Refunds
Looking for some extra cash? The Internal Revenue Service has $1 billion of it waiting to be collected. An estimated one million taxpayers who did not file a federal income tax return for 2011 have failed to pick up refunds totaling $1 billion. The IRS estimates that about half of those refunds total $698 or…
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Taxes From A To Z (2015): E Is For Early Distributions
It’s my annual “Taxes from A to Z” series! Next up: E is for Early Distributions Money that you put away in retirement plans tends to be tax-favored. With a traditional individual retirement arrangement (IRA), you generally receive a deduction for your contribution while money socked away in a qualified retirement plan (like a 401(k))…