Tax news and guidance for individual taxpayers — filing tips, deductions, refunds, and everything else that hits your personal return.
This week, 157 House Democrats (which for math junkies like me, who want to know the actual percentage of House Dems who signed, it’s 62%) signed a letter which put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on notice that an excise tax on high-cost health care insurance plans is not acceptable. Those who signed the letter…
Taxpayer asks: Can you file single if you are married? Short info I am still in school only have 1 more year then I am done. My insurance ran out so my husband and I got married for the insurance. We were engaged and already had a date. Just had to bump it up to…
The good news: nearly 50% of American households (47%, to be precise) won’t pay any federal income tax in 2009. The bad news: the remaining 50% (or so) will have to foot the bill for everyone. You can thank (or blame) the new economic recovery package for bumping the percentage of taxpayers who won’t be…
Admit it, you Google for tax advice. You might have even Googled to find me (Google seems to like me now that they no longer think I’m a porn site). But you can take Google too far… Just ask Kenneth and Trudi Woodard. The Woodards filed a joint federal income tax return for the 2004…
Taxpayer asks: I haven’t done my taxes in 3 years, I don’t owe the Feds any$, will I get the stimulus funds every1 else got once I do my taxes?(via twitter) Taxgirl says: By law, the IRS is not able to make any economic stimulus payments after December 31, 2008. But all is not lost….
Taxpayer asks: Hi,My husband and I have decided to open a bank account for our son. We’re going to give him an allowance every week. He gets to keep part of it and put the rest in the bank. If he saves a certain amount, he gets a bonus allowance. The point is to teach…
Shortly after I posted this piece about IRS cutting ties with ACORN, I received an email asking me, among other things, if I thought this was a good thing and if we should “get rid” of the VITA program altogether because of the potential for giving bad advice. I didn’t immediately respond to the email…
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced an extension of the deadline for its Offshore Voluntary Compliance Program. The deadline, which was initially September 23, 2009, has been pushed out until October 15, 2009. While more than 3,000 have come forward so far, the program is expected to garner considerably more taxpayers before the deadline….
If by success, you mean that a lot of people took advantage of it… The IRS has reported that 1.4 million taxpayers have claimed the first-time homebuyers credit. The credit is available to taxpayers who have not owned another principal residence at any time during the three years prior to the date of purchase of…
William Gifford, MBA, writes: Congress should eliminate the current system altogether. Throw out the federal income tax because it’s too broken to be fixed. In it’s place, I think we should pass something like the VAT in Europe: a federal sales tax. Think about it. Rather than penalize people for making more money, a federal…