Every year about this time, I get emails asking, more or less, what happens when you lie on your tax return to get a refund. There are the obvious answers… penalties, interest and depending on the severity, possible criminal prosecution. But there’s a lesser known potential consequence: having your return flagged as part of the…
Admit it, you’ve stared at that checkbox for the presidential election fund and you have no idea what it really means… It’s one of the great mysteries of the form 1040. First of all, you have to understand that the checkbox has nothing to do with your actual tax calculation. If you check “you” or…
Mark your calendars: the IRS will be holding another open house in offices across the country on Saturday, March 26, to help taxpayers. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman says, about the open house: We are opening our doors on these Saturdays to help taxpayers who may not have a chance to seek assistance during the work…
If you owe money to the federal government, your federal income tax refund can be seized to satisfy your debt. This is often referred to as “offset” since the seizures are part of the Treasury Offset Program (TOP); the program is administered by Financial Management Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Treasury. Examples…
When I first got married, I didn’t immediately change my name. It felt weird to me to have my maiden name for years and years and then – poof! – be somebody else. My diplomas, my law licenses, all of it was in my maiden name. It was who I was. Plus, I liked my…
This evening, I’ll be live tweeting tax questions on twitter as part of SentrySafe’s Twitter Party. To participate, follow me on twitter (@taxgirl) and SentrySafe (@SentrySafe). Then, pop into twitter.com tonight between 8:00p.m. and 9:00p.m. EST. Use the hashtag #Taxsavvy If you’ve never tweeted before, here’s your chance to try it out. I promise I…
I would guess a full 50% of the questions that come my way about filing status focus on whether it makes sense to file as married filing separate. My answers tend to be split between “no because you’re single” and “it depends.” My advice is not to make this any more difficult than it needs…
Today is March 15 which means that most corporate taxpayers must file their tax returns (or extensions) by the end of the day. This includes forms 1120 for C corporations and forms 1120S for S corporations. If you’re not ready yet, you can obtain an automatic 6-month extension by timely filing a federal form 7004…
Is it just me or does anyone else secretly wonder whether Donald Trump phoned up the judge in the Richard Hatch matter and tipped him off as to where and what Hatch was doing? I just find the timing odd (and yes, it did cross my mind that the Donald had a conversation with God…
These days, selling real estate doesn’t seem to make anyone happy. If there’s a loss (which is more often than not the case as of late), there’s a lot of grumbling. If there’s a gain, there’s a lot of complaining about the taxes due (especially if there was significant depreciation). It all feels so black…