Taxpayer asks: I live in Illinois, I understand Child Support is not a tax break, or have any tax implications, but how about lawyer fees everytime she takes me back to court. Taxgirl says: Nope, sorry. There’s no tax deduction for legal fees for child support – but you may able to deduct the cost…
Taxpayer asks: I was working as an independent contractor in this small company. At that time, I was getting paid with no taxes being withheld. I assumed I was getting paid under the table, but 6 months after I stopped working there I received a phone call from them asking for my SSN. I did…
Taxpayer asks: Hi Taxgirl,My wife filed for divorce in Tennessee Aug 2007. Moved out of the house in Dec 2007 and have paid her money ordered by the court as spousal support.I’ve paid all year and want to know if I can claim this money paid as alimony. Thanks for your help! Taxgirl says: It…
Who says crime doesn’t pay? Remember Cristina Warthen (nee Schultz), the Stanford Law School grad who engaged in a little “risky business” to help pay for her student loans? Warthen reportedly grossed more than $300,000 working as a hooker in California under the name “Brazil” on her now-defunct web site, touchofbrazil.net. As fate would have…
Ewwww… Something doesn’t smell right. Former Governor Blagojevich who is accused of attempting to sell the US Senate seat left vacant by President Obama, appeared on Good Morning America on Monday. His impeachment trial began yesterday – but Blagojevich had other plans. He skipped the trial to make the media rounds. Blagojevich has maintained his…
Taxpayer asks: I sent you a question (insert time frame here) ago about (insert topic here). Why haven’t you answered it yet? Taxgirl says: I have received a lot of these “follow up” type emails lately. I wanted to take a few moments to set some things straight: My busy season (if you can nail…
It’s official: we have a new Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate has confirmed Timothy Geithner, President Barack Obama’s pick for Treasury Secretary. The votes for Geithner did not reflect overwhelming confidence in Obama’s pick. The final vote was 60-34 in favor of Geithner. The vote was not strictly partisan with many Republicans embracing Geithner,…
Taxpayer asks: Why was my RAL denied? Taxgirl says: RALs are refund anticipation loans. They are basically loans (usually high interest) against your refund from the IRS. I am not a fan of the RAL. In many cases, I think they’re oversold to folks who can least afford to pay the fees when a normal…
If you live in Delaware, Illinois, New York or Rhode Island and file a paper federal income tax return, make sure you read the fine print: your service center mailing address has changed. Taxpayers in Delaware, New York and Rhode Island will mail their returns to the IRS Service Center in Kansas City, MO. Taxpayers…
Google/Feedburner/thorn in my side swears that everything is working fine now. However, the feed count still continues to drop. So, can I ask you a favor? If you normally subscribe to taxgirl via RSS, please make sure that you’re feeding to http://www.taxgirl.com/feed – you can also click on the little icon to the right. If…