January 22nd has come and gone without incident. It was supposed to be opening day for tax season at the Internal Revenue Service. But with a last-minute tax deal, the IRS has pushed off opening day until January 30. Today, the IRS confirmed that opening day for tax season at the agency is still slated…
Every one of us has had that moment when we’ve had to shuffle the cards a bit to make sure all of the bills get paid. That’s exactly the situation our country is finding itself in right now. And what’s in the stack of “to pay later”? It could be your tax refund. How could…
Taxpayer asks: Can I file my taxes before January 30? I want my refund. Taxgirl says: I’ve received about thirty different variations on this question alone since the IRS announced that they were delaying the start of filing season. E-file was set to open on January 22, 2013, but due to the last-minute tax deal…
Expecting a refund in 2013? The IRS has announced they expect refunds to be processed about as quickly in 2013 as they were in 2012. Last year, the IRS issued more than 9 out of 10 refunds to taxpayers in less than 21 days; the average refund was about $3,000. For the new year, you…
And just like that, summer is nearly over and it’s back to work. This week, I’ve been sorting through the “Ask the Taxgirl” mailbag and I’m seeing a number of questions that are similar in nature. Many of them are related to the same, tired arguments that taxpayers make over and over. Just because your…
Some of the best ideas are the most simple. This dawned on me while chatting with a fellow tax pro at a recent networking event (okay, it was a cocktail party, same thing). The two of us spent a few minutes talking about tax fraud and the child tax credit (yes, that’s what tax professionals…
Z is for Zero. If you work a regular job – meaning that you’re not an independent contractor – you pay federal income tax as you go by having it withheld from your pay during the year. This is called “withholding” and is based on the number of allowances you claim when you file a…
R is for Refund. With tax season down to the wire, more and more taxpayers are wondering about the status of their refunds. Your refund information is generally available about 72 hours after your tax return is processed. You can track your refund online with the “Where’s My Refund?” service offered by IRS or use…
I is for Injured Spouse. Injured spouse is perhaps one of the most misunderstood tax terms in the Tax Code. It just carries with it all kinds of baggage and associated terms, most of which have zero to do with actually being an injured spouse. So forget all of the things you think it means….
The IRS has extra cash: more than $1 billion in extra cash. And some of it might belong to you. More than one million taxpayers who were due a refund failed to file a federal income tax return in 2008, resulting in more than $1 billion sitting and waiting to be collected. The IRS estimates…