Tax news and guidance for individual taxpayers — filing tips, deductions, refunds, and everything else that hits your personal return.
Taxpayer asks: My question is about how to file taxes for my work. Since I’m writing a TV show blog, can I deduct my cable bills? How about my internet? Taxgirl says: Ahh, deductions, the most mysterious of tax form entries. What’s deductible? What’s not? A lot of what can be deducted is very fact-specific,…
With gas prices on the rise, it’s no surprise that the mileage rates as determined by IRS were a little higher this year than in years past. For the calendar year 2007, the standard mileage rates will be: 48.5 cents per mile for business miles driven; 20 cents per mile driven for medical or moving…
Ever wish you could live a double life? Growing numbers of people do every day. At least, virtually, courtesy of a San Francisco-based Linden Lab which has introduced a virtual world called Second Life in 1999. Second Life describes itself on its website as: “a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents….
In part of its efforts to get more money faster be more tax-payer friendly, the IRS has finally brought its Installment Plan Agreement online. The OIA is not to be confused with the OIC, the Offer in Compromise, which allows you to apply to reduce the total amount of tax due either because it is…
George Pragovich is at it again. A self-confessed anti-tax guru, Pragovich is said to be the brainchild behind the latest round of plaintiffs’ suits filed against the IRS. Though Pragovich refuses to answer questions about his involvement in the suits, Heidi Broward, the wife of former plaintiff Paul Broward was quoted as saying, “He’s one…
As more and more Americans find themselves increasingly in debt; many seek alternative methods of reducing debt loads such as negotiating with their creditors. Often, in such negotiations, creditors agree to reduce the amount of debt owed. Terrific, right? Don’t spend that extra cash just yet. Companies that reduce debt loans in a non-bankruptcy discharge…
If you’ve been following along, the changes that have been made to the IRS in this tax year have not been kind to taxpayers. Application fees are on the rise, often by more than $100. Penalties are being kicked up. Private debt collectors have been retained to knock lose a few more dollars from taxpayers. The…
As previously announced, the IRS will be handing out refunds for those taxpayers who use long-distance service. The refund will be available on the 2006 federal income tax return for individuals and businesses. Responding to concerns that the tax refund might require taxpayers to dig through old phone bills to claim the tax, the IRS…
Yesterday, I posted that I predicted that the top tax news story of the year would be the privatization of collections efforts from IRS. I may have to eat my words. If a ruling made by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit remains – and if other courts follow suit, a seemingly…
For tax year 2003 (the most recent tax year for which data is available), individuals reported noncash donations valued at $36.9 billion. These donations were reported on federal form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions, which is required when a taxpayer makes noncash donations which exceed a total $500. Not surprisingly, corporate stock was the largest percentage,…