Tax news and guidance for individual taxpayers — filing tips, deductions, refunds, and everything else that hits your personal return.
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…
Robert D Flach, the internet’s “Wandering Tax Pro“, writes: If I ruled the world, or at least had a voice in rewriting the Tax Code, not only would every man be as free as a bird and every voice be a voice to be heard, but I would also make the following changes to our…
Frank Siler writes: All members of Congress should be forced to do their taxes with pencil, paper, and IRS instructions. I am hopeful they would all conclude that the process is ridiculously complicated, invasive, and needs to be greatly simplified. Often I see politicians making clearly false or at least misleading statements about changes they…
Sheila Billingsley writes: I have a controversial suggestion for Congress: audit tax returns every year. I prepare tax returns for a large tax company. One of the biggest sources of stress for taxpayers is whether or not they will get audited. Many of them do everything right but are still very scared of an audit…
Beth S. writes: Two words: flat tax.
David Smith writes: If I could make one change in the tax code, I would eliminate any benefits for having children. I chose to be single. I chose not to have children. I am appalled to see how much our tax system subsidizes having children. It is welfare, just put forth another way. I already…
Gideon Alper, who publishes the Gay Couples Law Blog, which discusses new developments in same-sex family law and estate planning, writes: The IRS should recognize gay marriages not just as a matter of equality, but also to encourage socially beneficial behavior in gay relationships. Fred Silberberg, a Los Angeles attorney that has practiced family law…
Eric Satterley writes: An immediate need is to change the alternative minimum tax recapture law. On stock options you were forced to pay the alternative minimum tax even if you exercised any options (even if you did not sell the stocks). The law was that you could recapture/apply the tax paid toward the capital gains…
Scott Lovingood writes: Two specifics that should be addressed immediately. Stop double taxation 1) Eliminate the estate tax. You pay taxes on everything you make and then you get taxed again when you die? Tell me that makes any sense. 2) Stop taxing Dividends on personal accounts- Companies have already paid taxes on the profit…