Tax news and guidance for individual taxpayers — filing tips, deductions, refunds, and everything else that hits your personal return.
Taxpayer asks:This is my situation. In 2007, I sold a bunch of stock my grandpa gave me, and had a gain of roughly $8,000. I had my regular income at around $50,000, and $6,583 was withheld. I did not make any estimated tax payments throughout the year. I owed $1,271 in taxes. My question is:1….
After months of speculation, the field is finally set. The US presidential race is down to Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barrack Obama. Both will spend the next five months talking about the issues important to the American people. Tops on their list? The economy. The tax plans for McCain and Obama could…
Colorado senator Ken Salazar, who bested Coors beer Pete Coors for his Senate seat in 2004, has been mocked for his ignorance of the US Tax Code. Salazar, a fifth-generation Colorado rancher, touted himself as a man of the people, claiming that he understood the struggles of the working class and would create jobs and…
Melanie Taylor should feel comfortable behind bars: her participation in a tax fraud scheme with prisoners will likely land her in prison. Taylor has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to tax fraud charges stemming from a scheme that she ran with inmates at the Maryland Department of Corrections and other prisons. The tax losses are said…
And just when we thought the IRS had a handle on things… After admitting that 350,000 taxpayers were underpaid on their tax rebates because of an omission of the child tax credit, the IRS has another mea culpa: they’ve been misdirecting tax rebates to the wrong accounts. According to an article in Newsday, an IRS…
So, it turns out that I was wrong. But the IRS was more wrong. Way wrong. It turns out that up to 350,000 households did not receive the $300 per child owed them as part of their economic stimulus rebate payments. The IRS blames “human error” and “computer glitches.” According to the IRS, taxpayers are…
The IRS has reported that as of May 3, 2008, more tax returns had been processed than at the same time last year. How many more? About 15 million more to nearly 142 million, an increase of about 11%. And despite what those hold times felt like, the number of phone calls answered by IRS…
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…
I’ve posted before that there are NO plans in Congress to distribute monthly stimulus payments or rebates or bonuses to taxpayers. Nonetheless, I continue to receive emails from concerned readers about ads touting such a plan (I’ve seen one myself). These ads are the product of private companies: this information is NOT from the IRS,…
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that the so-called economic stimulus plan – largely consisting of tax rebates – will not boost the economy. According to a poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp., a whopping 82% of Americans believe the stimulus package won’t work. This is up sharply from 70% of Americans who said the…