Good news workers. You have one less thing to worry about in 2018 in connection with the impending new tax laws. The Internal Revenue Service says that even though many revamped individual tax laws kick in on New Year's Day, there's no need to re-do your current W-4. This tax document, pictured above in case it's been a while since you made any payroll withholding changes to your paycheck, is what your boss used to calculate how much in taxes to take out of your pay. There had been some concern, primarily from payroll administrators, that the coming tax law…

There's a tax bill, but there is no tax reform. There's still an estate tax. There are still (some) state and local itemized tax deductions. There's still an alternative minimum tax. And there are enough other tweaks to confuse filers and keep tax pros very busy over the next 12 (and more) months. Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) presides over the lone public hearing Dec. 13 of the House-Senate conference committee on H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Final House and Senate votes on the bill are planned for next week. Basically, the Republican tax bill…

John Koskinen's days of giving formal testimony as head of the IRS ended when his commissioner term concluded earlier this month. However, an interview he gave the week after leaving the tax agency post has raised questions about Donald Trump's tax returns and taxpayer privacy. Remember Donald J. Trump's tax returns? Those he said during the campaign that he'd share with America as soon as the IRS completed its audit of them? Well, we still don't know if the IRS has finished examining those prior year filings, but apparently Trump did sometime this year file his 2016 taxes. The Administration…

CBS/NFL clip via Giphy.com Any sports fan will tell you that penalties often ruin not only their teams' chances of winning, but also make the game itself worse. Taxes certainly aren't a game, but penalties in this part of our financial lives also are frustrating. Worse, they can be costly, to both taxpayers and the tax professionals they hire for filing help. Some tax penalties are set by law. Others are adjusted each year because of inflation. Penalties add more to tax bills: Paying taxes is bad enough. Paying a penalty for not filing on time makes that worse. Recent legislation…

The Internal Revenue Service's 2018 filing season calendar isn't quite this messy, but it's not firmed up yet. The House Ways and Means Committee today started marking up, otherwise known as tweaking, the Republican-driven tax reform bill. Early word is that many provisions you may have read about will change. C'est la legislative process. Meanwhile, since most of the new tax laws won't take effect until Jan. 1, we can focus on our 2017 returns that will be filed under the existing tax laws. Most of us are breathing a sigh of relief that the tax moves we've made so…

Picking up some extra cash is nothing new. Now, however, side hustles have become a viable employment option. They’ve also become a problem for the Internal Revenue Service.

    Welcome to Part 7 of the ol' blog's series on 2018 inflation adjustments.Today we look at changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amounts and next year's Social Security wage base.You can find links to all 2018 inflation posts in the first item:Income Tax Brackets and Rates.Note: The 2018 figures apply to 2018 tax returns that are due in 2019. For comparison purposes, you'll also find 2017 amounts to be used in filing 2017 tax returns due next April. When you're hit by the AMT, or Alternative Minimum Tax, you might be tempted to rearrange the tax acronym's letters since it can…

Where the heck has 2017 gone? The countdown clock over in the ol' blog's right column is steadily ticking away the time left until Dec. 31, the deadline for most moves that could affect this year's taxes. The Internal Revenue Service, however, has its eyes on November, which is just little more than a week away. The start of that 11th month effectively is the cutoff date for the federal tax agency to get ready for the next year's filing season. If the IRS can't get some certainty as to how to update forms, instructions and operational processes, the start…

Welcome to Part 2 of the ol' blog's 2018 series on tax inflation adjustments. We started on Oct. 19 with a look at next year's — if there isn't tax reform or cuts by or before then — income tax brackets and rates. Today we look at standard and itemized deductions, personal exemptions and limitations on these tax situations that apply to some wealthier taxpayers. Note: The 2018 figures apply to 2018 returns that are due in 2019. New tax laws also have altered some of the 2018 amounts and are noted in the post below.For comparison purposes, you'll also find 2017 amounts to be used in…

Image by Shawn Campbell via Flickr Creative Commons What's going on with the Affordable Care Act (ACA)? It depends on where you're looking for answers. Federal lawmakers remain in a quandary over how to deal with the ACA, or as it's known (for now) Obamacare. The Internal Revenue Service, however, made it clear this week that it plans to follow the health care law's reporting requirements as long as they are officially on the books. That's a reversal of a prior IRS position. However, given the confusion with the law, both under its namesake president and since Donald J. Trump moved…

To err on tax returns is human. To forgive is Xtraordinary, and yes, the misspelling is intentional. Tax law lets us correct mistakes we make on our 1040s via another form, the 1040X. Most people file 1040X, which is known as amending your return, because they discovered they didn't claim a tax break that give them a (or a bigger) tax refund. Of course, since the Internal Revenue Service is involved, there are some rules and certain steps you must follow. Here are five key things to keep in mind if you discover you need to re-do a previously filed…

It's that time of year again. Monday, Oct. 16, the absolute final tax return filing deadline. Don't panic. You've still got a few hours to fill out and submit your 2016 Form 1040. The latest Weekly Tax Tip, over there at the top of the ol' blog's right column, has 10 tax tidbits to help you through today. You also can find more tax tips in this year's previously posted Daily Tax Tips, conveniently archived on their own by-month pages: January, February, March and April. Good luck with your 2016 return today. And remember, when you're done with that (yay!), you can find…

Based on Internal Revenue Service tax return filing data, it looks like around 7 million Americans have yet to submit their 2016 forms. They need to get busy. (Yes, I get to say they, not we, this year since I filed my 1040 this summer.) The absolute, final due date is less than a week away. The six-month filing extension typically kicks the extended deadline to Oct. 15. But since that's on a Sunday this year, the IRS is giving extreme procrastinators until Monday, Oct. 16. So that you don't waste any of these last few days you have to…

So that you can enjoy lazy days in your retirement like this couple, take advantage of tax-saving retirement moves by the October filing extension deadline. (Photo by Pug50 courtesy Flickr CC) If you're one of the millions who's put off filing your tax return until October, you know that due date — it's Monday, Oct. 16, this year — is just a week away. (More on this, complete with filing tips coming soon!) But mid-October is also a key deadline for other tax tasks, particularly when it comes to retirement savings. Here are a couple of retirement-related tax matters to…

Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith is grilled Oct. 3 about the credit company's security breach by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (Click image to watch full hearing on YouTube) Human error, specifically one human's error, is why 145 million of us are worrying about what crooks will do with the data that was stolen earlier this year in a data breach of Equifax. Richard Smith, the credit reporting bureau's former CEO, in testimony before House Energy and Commerce Committee today blamed the initial failure to patch a known security risk on a specific individual. He did not…

Updated: Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019 October marks the start for many companies of open season for employees' workplace benefits, many of which provide workers some nice tax savings. It's also a good month to make other tax-related moves. It's time to turn our attention to health care again. This time, though, it's not medical insurance via the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. Instead, October marks the beginning of open enrollment season for workplace-provided benefits at companies across the country. Decide now for next year: Open enrollment periods vary from company to company. Most run from two to four weeks for workers to…

Donald J. Trump is Tweeting about tax reform. He's also holding bipartisan dinners at the White House to talk taxes. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin was pleased steak was on the menu. The White House website has a video explaining how the tax code is broken. House Speaker Paul Ryan says Congressional Republican's tax reform plan outline will be released in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, pundits have been honing their prognostication skills, attempting to tease out tax possibilities and their potential effects. But despite all this action, the bottom line is that it's still just a big tax…

This post was reviewed and updated on Friday, Aug. 30, 2019. Records, tax and financial, are often among the property damaged or destroyed in a natural disaster. If you’re lucky, you might be able to salvage some of the documents. If not, you’ll need to recreate them to take advantage of tax-related storm relief. (Image: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via Louisiana Law Blog) .Maybe you didn’t think the hurricane’s flood waters would reach your neighborhood. Or maybe you just never kept copies, either paper or digital, of your financial and tax records. Now, however, you find you’re among the millions dealing with…

Happy Labor Day. While many Americans are working on this holiday, others are fortunate to have off this first Monday in September. Whether you’re working or not most likely depends on the type of employee you are.

I don’t know about you, but I am glad to see August gone! It was a horrible, awful, no-good month for too many of my fellow Texans. We're counting on you, September, with your promise of cooler temperatures and return of routines, like the kiddos' going back to class, to get us to a better place. Among the things to think about as fall nears is, of course, taxes. Here are four quick tax tasks to consider this month. File your 2016 taxes: For the first time in years, I'm heading into fall with my prior year return already in…

Some folks have been asking for clarification on disaster loss claims, specifically with regard to the value of a damaged or destroyed home. A Rockport, Texas, home severely damaged by Hurricane Harvey, which made its first landfall on Aug. 25 at the Gulf Coast town. (Photo courtesy National Weather Service, Corpus Christi, via Twitter) …At issue is how a home’s fair market value factors into a disaster tax claim. I’m sorry to report that a property’s high value — I’m talking for sale purposes, not just your personal appreciation and assessment of the house — won’t help you get more…

All U.S. workers know, simply from looking at their pay stubs, that our tax system is pay-as-you-earn. Our taxes come out of our paychecks as withholding, both for federal income taxes, as well as to cover future Social Security and Medicare benefits. We don't have control over those taxes we pay now for federal retirement and hospital coverage when we're older. But we can — and should — adjust our income tax withholding if there are changes in our lives, such as marriage or a family addition or home purchase that can affect a tax bill, or we're getting a big…

"Dear IRS, …" — If you have a question about how a tax law or regulation affects your particular set of circumstances, you can ask, in writing, for the Internal Revenue Service to weigh in. But be prepared to pay for the advice and, effective Aug. 15, pay electronically. Taxes are complex. That’s why it’s often wise to get professional help. In some cases, however, even tax pros need some guidance. This is particularly true when taxpayer circumstances are such that the individuals and their advisers feel the need for further interpretation as to how tax laws or administrative rules apply…

You’ve had enough of being a wage slave. It’s time to start your own business. That means it’s also time to consider the tax implications of becoming your own boss. Here are four tax matters to think about as you plan your move from the corporate cubicle to your own self-employed suite. 1. Select a business structure.  How you’ll run your business will affect your taxes. You have several choices.  The most common forms (and the federal tax forms required) are: Sole Proprietorship (Schedule C or C-EZ as an attachment to your personal Form 1040, along with Schedule SE to pay…

Alfred Hitchcock nailed it in his 1955 cat burglar-turned-romance starring Grace Kelly and Gary Grant. The pair teamed up, with Grant's character using his expertise as a former jewel thief, to catch a new criminal in the wealthy playground of Monte Carlo, Monaco. (Click film screenshot to watch the movie trailer on YouTube.) The Internal Revenue Service apparently is taking a hint from a Hollywood classic. It's thinking like identity thieves to catch identity thieves. That was among the messages from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in July 25 media teleconference. Cybercriminals are showing increasing savvy and tax expertise, particularly in…

UPDATED July 17, 2019 Happy World Emoji Day! It's held on July 17 each year as a way to promote the use of emojis — like we need to do that! — and, according to Emojipedia (really!), spread the enjoyment that the colorful icons bring. The enjoyment goal got me thinking of how emojis might make one of our worst tax tasks more pleasant. I'm talking, of course, about our annual filing of returns. Most of us already use tax software. Surely it wouldn't be that difficult to incorporate the option of adding emojis to the lines we fill electronically…

This post was updated Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Paid tax return preparers must sign their clients' 1040 forms and include their IRS-issued professional ID number. The IRS lost a court case to charge a fee for the identifiers, known as PTINs, but is seeking a stay of that order pending possible appeal of the case. If you're a tax preparer who's hoping to get back fee you paid for your IRS-issued special identification number, you could be waiting a bit longer. The Internal Revenue Service on July 24 formally asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to…

Undefeated boxing champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. is trying to avoid a knockout from the Internal Revenue Service. Mayweather still owes the federal tax collector a reported $22.s million for his 2015 taxes. That year, Mayweather reportedly earned as much as $230 million for besting Manny Pacquiao in the heavily promoted Fight of the Century. Floyd Mayweather's official weigh-in before his 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas. Money earned on that match is at the center of an unpaid tax bill battle Mayweather's waging with the IRS. (Photo courtesy Pixabay via Wikimedia Commons) Rich, but tax cash poor: Mayweather is…

Happy Birthday, America! July 4 is special to all of us Americans, the day we declared our independence from Great Britain. Taxes, as everyone knows thanks to James Otis’ famous announcement that “Taxation without representation is tyranny,” were among the reasons we sought to govern ourselves. And taxes, even after we gained control, continue to play a key part in our lives, politics and popular culture. James Cagney, before he became the prototypical movie gangster, was as song-and-dance man. He showed off those talents in “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the biopic of a man who not only gave us great musicals,…

Regardless of which month you marry, there are and will be tax matters to  consider. Relaxing after the ceremony. (Photo by Barney Moss via Flickr) Ever wonder why June is "the" wedding month? Me, too. So I looked it up. The Old Farmer's Almanac, which I never realized was a go-to wedding planning resource, says that June is the most popular month to marry thanks to some ancient traditions. The Roman goddess Juno, for whom the sixth month was named, was the protector of women in all aspects of life, but especially in marriage and childbearing. So, says the Almanac, a…

Tropical Storm Storm Cindy is now officially churning in the Gulf of Mexico, with a predicted landfall in a few days along the Texas-Louisiana border. That track could, of course change. And as meteorologists on the Weather Channel note, "it's not the name, but the rain." Tropical system precipitation typically reaches beyond the actual low pressure system, often well inland of coastal properties, and produces dangerous flooding. Such reports have come in from as far north as Atlanta today, with Cindy's expanded rain bands causing highway flooding in that city. Federal and state tax help for recovery efforts: As noted in earlier weather…

Donald J. Trump's got a lot of campaign promise policy issue irons in the fire. This week, he pulled one out a bit by deciding to let undocumented residents known as DREAMers stay in the United States. The decision was announced as part of a fact sheet released by Homeland Security late June 15. That document's next-to-last line notes: "The June 15, 2012 memorandum that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will remain in effect." A group of DREAMers, the undocumented youths who hope to remain in the United States, make their point during a 2016 presidential rally. (Photo…

It may be summer, but for some folks, Tax Day is coming up again on Thursday, June 15. That day is the deadline that millions of Americans face to pay their second estimated tax amount for the 2017 tax year. It's also the due day for U.S. taxpayers living abroad to file their 2016 tax returns. Estimated tax time again: The U.S. tax system is based on the premise that the U.S. Treasury gets its portion of individual taxes as we earn our money. For most of us, that happens via payroll withholding from our checks that we get from…

Take a look at this Twitter post by Donald J. Trump back in October 2015 of his purported 2014 tax return documents. That's still as close as we've gotten to seeing any of the president's tax filings. We got word about Donald J. Trump's 2016 taxes over the weekend. No, he didn't share them with the public. In fact, Trump is making even the country's tax collection agency wait to see them. The president has, like millions of other taxpayers, filed for an extension to finish filling out his 2016 tax return. All we've got is time: Both NBC and…

Most Americans living abroad don't like the U.S. requirement that they have to send the Internal Revenue Service a Form 1040. That's one of the findings in Greenback Expat Tax Services most recent annual survey of U.S. expatriates. If your trip abroad turns into something more permanent, you'll have many U.S. expatriate issues to consider, including taxes. (Photo courtesy Those Dam Americans blog) Sixty-six percent of expats queried earlier this year told Greenback they don't believe they should be required to file a U.S. tax return while they are living outside Uncle Sam's borders. That more than two-thirds percentage is…

Happy Mother's Day! What a perfect day to talk about tax audits. You don't see the connection? Then you missed the season finale last week of the CBS show "Mom." I'm not really a fan, but it was on in the background as we were fixing dinner. Scene from the May 11 season finale of CBS sitcom "Mom," where the characters portrayed by Anna Faris and Allison Janney consult an attorney, played by Leonard Roberts, about some tax trouble. (Photo courtesy CBS) But as I was chopping veggies I heard "the IRS put a lien on my account." So naturally…

In an exclusive NBC News interview with Lester Holt, the president mentioned the letter, released today, that discusses what his attorneys say show only tangential connections to Russian money. Click image to watch the full NBC news interview. Still no Donald J. Trump tax returns, but today we got another letter from his lawyers regarding his taxes, specifically whether there was any Russian-sourced income on his filings over the last 10 years. The letter, from partners Sheri Dillon and William Nelson of the Washington, D.C., branch of international law firm Morgan Lewis, was addressed to Trump and "hereby confirm[ed] the following…

How do I celebrate each May 5th? With guacamole, cerveza y tax tips! That means here in our Texas casa, every day basically is Cinco de Mayo. Yes, there really is a tax component to Cinco de Mayo beyond the use of my poco Español as a framework for this list. That's why I feel justified in urging you — before you lift a glass, be it brimming with Dos XX or a margarita, to commemorate Mexico's victory over French troops at the Battle of Puebla on this day in 1862 — to check out these five tax-smart tax moves. Uno: Get…

May flowers, like these Texas poppies, are one of the reasons it's such a merry month. Other reasons to be happy is that there are some tax moves you can make now to cut your 2017 IRS bill. (Photo by Kay Bell) Welcome to the merry, merry month of May, which is particularly joyous for folks who've finished up their 2016 tax returns. That's almost 136 million of us, with around 17 million of those 1040 forms arriving at Internal Revenue Service processing centers in the final days of this year's main filing season. While the 2017 filing season got…

An autographed photo of San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker and the NBA team's head coach Gregg Popovich from Daniel Lewis' autograph collection. Another Coach Pop signature on a restaurant receipt with a really, really big tip is now getting attention. Gregg Popovich is in the midst of going for his sixth NBA championship as a head coach, but he's already the champ to one Memphis, Tennessee, restaurant employee. Pop, as the coach of the San Antonio Spurs is known, apparently left an almost 613 percent tip after a visit April 21 to McEwen's on Monroe. The dollar amount…

Some folks didn’t file their federal taxes on April 18. Judging from social media, much of the deadline busting was the fault of cats. “Can’t claim my cats as dependents? Well I can’t file then,” Tweeted @deedles420. Sorry, Dee, but while a dependent doesn’t have to be a blood relative, your fur babies don’t pass tax muster. Dee was not alone. The Twitter hashtag #ExcusesForNotFilingTaxes underscored the internet’s reputation as cat loving and apparently tax hating. “Still waiting for cats’ social security numbers,” Tweeted @growingupZee. Good point, Zee, since those nine official digits from the Social Security Administration are key to tax filing. But…

Tax Day 2017 is over. That means Uncle Sam has the bulk of his take from our 2016 earnings, thanks to tax bills paid on April 18 with return filings and extensions. Now what's he going to do with our money? Steve Ballmer at World Mobile Congress in 2010 talking about the Windows phone when he was still heading Microsoft. (Photo by Aanjhan Ranganathan via Flickr CC) Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and current owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, has the answer to that eternal taxpayer question. Well, not Ballmer himself, but rather his newly launched government financial…

The U.S. Postal Service has evolved since the days when Texas Panhandle residents depended on mule mail. That's a good thing, since millions of taxpayers still insist on using today's postal system to send their annual tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service. (Photo courtesy of Traces of Texas via Facebook) The 2017 tax filing season has been unusually slow. Through April 7, the Internal Revenue Service reports it had received 3.6 percent fewer tax returns than during the same time period last year. The decrease in filings extends even to electronic returns, an area that in recent years had…

You've got until midnight your time to get your 2016 tax return to the Internal Revenue Service, either by hitting "send" on your computer or getting your paper form to a Post Office where it can be postmarked today. Or, if it becomes clear that you're just not going to finish that 1040, and the IRS expect around 13 million of us to arrive at that realization sometime today, it's then time to turn to another IRS form: the 4868. Form 4868, otherwise known as the procrastinating taxpayer's best friend, will get you six more months to complete your tax…

Remember those frantic times when your classroom assignment was due and you were running out of time to finish it? Millions of U.S. taxpayers are flashing back to those school days as they scramble to complete their 2016 tax returns by tomorrow, April 18. We all face deadlines. And at some point, we all procrastinate. If that's you now as the April 18 tax filing deadline looms, don't panic. You've still got time to do the tax job right. But the tax stakes are definitely higher than that what you faced with that looming senior essay you put off too…

Around 25,000 people gathered on the U.S. Capitol grounds Saturday, April 15, as part of a nationwide Tax March demanding the president release his tax returns. (Photo courtesy Trump Tax March via Twitter) Donald J. Trump fell back on his "I'm president and you're not" argument in rebuttal to the tens of thousands who marched Saturday, April 15, to demand the president release his federal returns. The morning after the gatherings in almost every state, @realDonaldTrump Tweeted, "Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!" Trump had said during the campaign that once…

If you've waited until now to finish your taxes (or are going to delay until the very last minute on April 18), then your best filing, and paying if you owe, bet is to go electronic. As the Internal Revenue Service has been saying for years, filing and paying your taxes is easier and more accurate than going the old fashioned paper route. In case you haven't made your e-filing and, if needed, e-payment choices yet, here are your options. E-filing choices: Tax e-filing actually covers two things, using software to prepare your 1040 and associated schedules and forms and…

Estimated taxes can be confusing, but they are required when you get income that isn’t subject to withholding. Here’s the scoop on the process in this estimated tax primer.

No maybe about it. Taxpayers will be calling the Internal Revenue Service this weekend as the April 18 tax return filing deadline looms. Taxpayers will be taking Carly Rae Jepsen's advice and calling the IRS in a filing season last-minute rush to complete their returns. Click image to watch her song's video. Or you can check out IRS videos for tax help. The first two weeks of April usually are the busiest times of the year for IRS employees who staff the agency's toll-free telephone help lines. And since this is an unusually slow filing season — the IRS reports…

As if you and your tax adviser weren't already crunched enough in April, this filing season there's a new deadline for folks who have money or other assets in foreign accounts. FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), is now due on the regular federal individual tax return's April deadline — that's the 18th this year because the 15th is on Saturday and Emancipation Day falls on Monday, April 17 — instead of June 30 as it has been in previous years. The good news is that your FBAR filing can be extended until October. And…

Time is rapidly running out this filing season to make tax-saving moves, but adding to an IRA could be a win-win-win. Win 1: Added feathering of your nest egg Most moves to reduce a tax year's final bill must be taken by the end of that tax year. Once Dec. 31 is past, so are your options to reduce what you owe the Internal Revenue Service. IRA contributions, however, are different. You have until the April fling deadline, which is next Tuesday, the 18th this year, to put money into your traditional or Roth IRA and have the contribution count as…

You have a mortgage. That home's property taxes are waaaay too big. (Note to self: Protest the appraisal.) And you were really generous. All those expenses probably mean that you itemize instead of taking the standard deduction when you file your taxes. Yes, it's more work, but if you take full advantage of all Schedule A has to offer, it can really pay off. Schedule A (Form 1040)   Here's a closer look at what you can claim where when you itemize. Medical and Dental Expenses  Being sick sucks. Having to pay a lot of out-of-pocket medical expenses is a pain, too.…

Most of us — Internal Revenue Service data shows around 70 percent of taxpayers — don't mess with itemized deductions. Instead this large group of filers claims the standard deduction. It's easy. The amount to claim is based on your filing status and found directly on the 1040 and 1040A forms; it's included with the personal exemption amount(s) on 1040EZ. It's also adjusted annually for inflation, so generally if you make more the next tax year, your standard deduction is larger. But sometimes standard deduction claimants feel a bit left out at tax time, since so much is written (guilty!) about…

You know there's Free File, but you'd really feel more comfortable getting some face-to-face help filling out your taxes. The problem is you don't have a lot of money to pay for accredited tax assistance. Good news. You might qualify for free, in-person tax help. Free tax-preparation and filing help, like that shown here at a Rutherford Country, Tennessee, VITA office, is available at thousands of sites across the country. No-cost tax return preparation and e-filing is available at nearly 12,000 Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) sites across the United States. These filing-season help centers…

Click image to watch Stephen Colbert's character Otto Sanchez "advise" H&R Block customers. Stephen Colbert has assumed a variety of personas during his comic career. On his April 5 CBS late night show a new, sort of tax-focused character appeared. Hello Otto Sanchez, hoax H&R Block tax professional. As the company itself asked on its Facebook page, what could go wrong? Plenty. From singed and mistakenly shredded tax documents to an impromptu serenade to beer during the consultation, three customers of the country's largest franchised tax preparation service were amazingly good-natured victims of Colbert's skewed tax humor. I hope the…

Tax filing must keep evolving. That's the word from Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen, who today made his fourth and final appearance as head of the U.S. tax agency before the National Press Club. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen holds a paper Form 1040 during his speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Each event attendee got a souvenir form, complete with a personal "thanks for filing" note penned by the commish. That means, Koskinen told the assembled group of media in Washington, D.C., more digital solutions to taxes. And if tax reform can help achieve that, then…

This is the original blog post copy that ran on Monday, March 24, 2014. It was updated on Friday, March 31, 2017. Business tax reform has been getting a lot of attention the last few years, with both President Obama on the Democratic side and House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Dave Camp on the Republican side pushing for change. While Congress and the White House debate tax reform as it relates to big business, the Internal Revenue Service already has made a change to ease tax filing for many owners of smaller companies. For 2013 returns, individuals who claim…

Ah, youth. The excitement. The energy. The illusion of immortality. The first-ever filing of a tax return. Boom. Taxes often are the first indication of young adulthood. And apparently it’s a grown-up responsibility that many millennials are turning over to other grownups, specifically their parents. Real mom-and-pop tax help: More than a third (37 percent) of millennials relies on their parents at least in part for tax help, according to a new study released by TaxAct. The survey, conducted by ORC International earlier this year on behalf of the tax software company, also found that young men are more likely to…

The April filing deadline (it’s on the 18th this year) is less than a month away. So far, the tax season is running slow. The Internal Revenue Service says that fewer than half of the expected 153 million returns have arrived at its processing offices. That indicates that there will be a mad rush to the tax filing finale. And that means that a lot of people will fall into the proverbial haste makes waste pit, being in such a hurry that they’ll overlook some tax breaks. If you’re careful not to miss any tax breaks for which you qualify, you…

Bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas, are among the wildflowers that emerged early this year thanks to warmer than normal temperatures. (Photo of a Hill Country patch on March 18, 2017, by Kay Bell) Hello, Spring! You used to be my favorite season, but for the last few years — OK, the last dozen that we’ve been back in Texas — you’ve arrived in late February or early March and only lasted about three days. By the time you’re official, which was when you clocked in at 6:29 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (5:29 a.m. CDT; I was asleep) today, it generally feels…

A Pennsylvania man said he didn't file 10 years' worth of federal tax returns because the forms required use of a Social Security number, which he considered analogous to the Biblical "mark of the beast." James Kerr Schlosser's 666 tax protest, however, didn't convince the Internal Revenue Service or the legal system. The 59-year-old Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, resident was convicted on March 7 of failing to report $2.3 million he earned as a medical equipment salesman. Foreign accounts, coins used in scheme: To evade the tax due on the millions, federal court papers show that Schlosser used foreign business trusts and…

Are we having tax fun yet? We did for while last night when it looked like we finally might get a look at Donald J. Trump’s taxes. OK. We did get to see part of the new president’s 2005 tax return, courtesy tax journalist David Cay Johnston and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes talk Trump taxes on March 14 with Pulitzer Prize winning tax journalist David Cay Johnston. Trump tells tax all? The tax return provides some basic info, but raises a lot more questions, including who leaked it. I’m among those who believe this…

Yes, there's the Republican plan to replace Obamacare. And, yes, a serious winter storm is pounding the Northeast. But today, March 14, attention turns to the men's college basketball championship. The quest for that title is known as March Madness and it kicks off with two games later today in Dayton, Ohio. Place your bets: I'm not a basketball fan, college or pro, but long-time readers know what this month means to me — gambling and taxes. While the Super Bowl is the year's single biggest betting day — we're waiting for the final tally, but last February's 51st NFL…

The United States and Canada share more than the world's longest undefended border. They also share attacks by cyber criminals on their online tax systems. A sign at the point where the railroad crosses the U.S.-Canada border at Peace Arch Park. This is the westernmost point on the continuous main section of the border. (Photo by Vmenkov via Wikimedia) Canada Revenue Agency’s website was down from the afternoon of Friday, March 10, until 5 p.m. Sunday, March 12, after tax officials discovered the site had a security vulnerability. South of the 49th parallel on Thursday, March 9, the Internal Revenue Service suspended…

Have you filed your tax return yet? Neither have I. Neither have millions of Americans. The weekly filing data the Internal Revenue Service delivers during high tax filing season shows that almost all the numbers are behind where filing was at this point last year. Started slow, stayed that way: When filing season kicked off back in late January, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said his agency was expecting 153 million individual tax returns to be filed in 2017. Most of those show up from January through the April deadline, which is on the 18th this year. There's usually a big…

Are you planning to catch up this weekend on some of this year’s Academy Award winning movies you’ve yet to see? Me, too. But I’m also putting on my viewing list a newish flick, “Love & Taxes.” Reel tax life: I’m not making this up. It’s a real movie that, according to its website, is “a riveting comic tale of seven years of tax avoidance.” OK. You probably want a less vested review. Here’s what Ken Jaworowski had to say in Friday’s New York Times: Likability goes a long way in “Love & Taxes,” a comedy that relies on the…

Could you use $763? The IRS could have that much or more just waiting for you. It's yours as long as you don't miss the 2013 tax return tax deadline. Photo by 401(k) 2012 courtesy Flickr Creative Commons Nope, that's not a typo. More than 1 million taxpayers didn't file their federal returns three years ago and that oversight has left the Internal Revenue Service holding more than $1 billion in unclaimed refunds. If some of that money is yours, the IRS wants to send it to you. But you have to ask by filing a 2013 Form 1040 (or…

This post was reviewed and updated Friday, May 4, 2018. Whenever I want to escape the crazy that is real life, I turn to the movies. Sometimes it's my favorite tax-themed films. Amanda Abbington and Martin Freeman, pictured here on the set of "Sherlock" with Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the show's title character behind them, have separated. (Photo courtesy PBS Masterpiece) Other times when I can't get away for a couple of hours, I surf entertainment news. Go ahead, judge me. Then admit you've done the same! In perusing the web recently, I stumbled across a list of celebrity couples…

Sure, you're happy to tell your friends about the online bargains you get, but not so much your state's tax officials. That essentially will happen in Colorado this summer. But it won't be shoppers revealing their internet purchases. It will be the companies that sold them the stuff. Colorado online shoppers oppose the state's new sales tax reporting law because it violates their privacy. And oh yeah, now they'll have to pay more tax. The online purchase info is part of a creative way Colorado lawmakers devised to try to collect the almost $173 million in tax revenue they say…

The Internal Revenue Service would really, really like if all of us would use tax software to prepare and e-file our taxes. It even gives around 70 percent of filers the chance to do so for free at the aptly named Free File section of the IRS website. But a lot of taxpayers who qualify for Free File decide instead to pay a tax pro to file their returns, according to a new survey by NerdWallet. Tax pros preferred: More than 1 in 3 taxpayers, or 38 percent, who make less than $50,000 annually hired a tax professional, according to…

Working on your taxes this Presidents Day? You are most definitely not alone. The day following what officially is still just a celebration of Washington's Birthday is typically the busiest day of the year for Internal Revenue Service phone reps. They usually field thousands of calls per hour on the third Tuesday of every February. You can find lots of tax help and filing options on your computer and smartphone. To help ease some of tomorrow's expected call crunch, the IRS phone help line is open today, Monday, Feb. 20, even though it's a federal holiday. IRS representatives will be taking…

Donald Trump is batting .500 for cabinet members who screwed up nanny tax reporting. This morning, the Senate narrowly confirmed Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-South Carolina) to head the White House Office of Management and Budget. The vote was 51-49. At least Vice President Mike Pence didn't have to up to Capitol Hill to break a tie this time. Click image to watch the C-SPAN video of Mick Mulvaney's confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. His testimony apparently convinced just enough Senators to approve him on Feb. 16 for the White House budget post. Did Mulvaney's…

This post was updated Feb. 16, 2018. The wait is over! Feb. 15 was the day that the Internal Revenue Service can finally start issuing refunds to folks who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). Photo by eFile989 via Flickr But don't head to your bank just yet. Cleared, but not completed: The refund hold was mandated by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes, or PATH, Act as a way, in part, to help stop tax identity theft and refund fraud. That hold now is officially over. But from the very beginning of filing…

Taxes are confusing anyway, but when a filing season has some special considerations, the misinformation increases. And with the availability of social media, the tax myths multiply. That's happening this year since refunds from some very specific tax returns are, by law, being held until the middle of February. Here are five tax refund myths the Internal Revenue Service says are making the rounds, along with the truth about the situation. Myth 1: All Refunds Are DelayedYes, some refunds are delayed, but not every single one. The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes, or PATH, Act has a provision that prohibits…

In addition to a calculator to do your taxes, you also need a calendar. Given the myriad types of taxpayers out there, the Internal Revenue Service has a variety of due dates for their filings, be they tax returns or documents reporting tax data to Uncle Sam. Sometimes it's simply calendar quirks that produce filing deadline issues. That's the case again this fling season, especially for individual taxpayers. New laws, new tax deadlines: Other deadlines, however, are set by law. And now, some of those deadlines, particularly for business taxpayers, have changed this year. The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health…

One thing that's constant every tax filing season is that people who are expecting refunds file their returns early. Until this year. The number of tax returns filed, processed and refunds issued are all down dramatically this filing season. The impact of a required hold on some refunds also is affecting the average check amount, which at this point last year was $3,385 but is just $1,994 so far into 2017. Internal Revenue Service data so far this filing season, which officially started Jan. 23, shows a dramatic decrease in the number of tax returns the agency has received and processed.…

This post was updated April 1, 2021. You’re married. You got married on Dec. 31. You’re a parent. You take care of an aging parent. You’re a single dad. You’re divorced. You got divorced on Dec. 31. All of these personal situations can affect your tax filing status. So getting it right on your tax return is critical. Take, for example, this dad helping his children with their homework. If he’s the only parent, he could have a couple of tax filing status choices depending on his personal situation. Read on to find out how. Why does filing status matter…

Did you, like the second-half resurgent New England Patriots, come up a winner yesterday thanks to some Super Bowl bets? The New England Patriots scored 31 unanswered points and stunned the Atlanta Falcons with an overtime Super Bowl LI win Sunday, Feb. 5, at NRG Stadium in Houston. With the victory, Tom Brady became the first quarterback to win five Super Bowl games. (Photo courtesy NFL.com) Uncle Sam congratulates and thanks you. Gambling winnings, whether thousands of dollars on a sports championship or a few bucks from a lottery scratch-off ticket, are taxable income. Some of the taxable winnings come…

Hello February. Although you're the year's shortest month, your fewer days can be full of extremes, like snow this week in the Midwest and Northeast and weather warm enough here in Central Texas for us to turn off the furnace and open windows. Image courtesy Tammy King's February Pinterest Board February's changes can be dramatic. But there's no need to over-react to your taxes this month. There are lots of easy moves you can make over the next 28 days. Collect your tax statements: Filing data on a variety of forms is filtering in this month. If you work for a company,…

This post was updated on Feb. 2, 2019. The 2019 tax filing season has been officially underway for about a week. Millions of folks have already filed their returns. The Ally Bank fortune cookie I got at FinCon16 last September was already planning for this filing season. And yes, after acknowledging the good tax advice, I ate the cookie! These are, for the most part, the folks who are expecting refunds. Some taxpayers, however, wait to file even if they are getting money back from Uncle Sam. Form-ulaic delay: Why the delay? In a lot of cases, folks haven't yet received…

Reviewed Sept. 23, 2023 UPDATE, Dec. 23, 2022: The reporting triggers for Form 1099-K were revised as part of the COVID-19 prompted American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Previously, the reporting level was more than 200 transactions per year that exceeded an aggregate amount of $20,000 in earnings. ARPA reduced the 1099-K issuance requirement to just $600 in earnings. Period. For any number of transactions. The IRS delayed the implementation of the change until tax year 2023. UPDATE, Jan. 30, 2021: This post and table now includes Form 1099-NEC. Last used in 1982, beginning with the 2021 tax filing season, the 1099-NEC…

Every year, the Internal Revenue Service makes a concerted effort to hand out more Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) money. The reason, says the tax agency, is that around 20 percent of eligible filers consistently fail to file for this refundable tax credit. But what about those who do claim the EITC? The IRS says that nationwide last year, 27 million U.S. workers and their families got $67 billion thanks to this tax credit for lower- and middle-income workers. Where EITC money goes: Not surprisingly, the most populated states account for the most EITC claims and actual dollars returned to eligible…

The Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, is one of the filing claims that is delaying federal (and in some cases, state) tax refunds this year. But even if you have to wait a few extra weeks to get your refund from Uncle Sam (or your state tax office), filing for the EITC is usually worth it. It's worth more than $6,000 for some filers. And all or some of that money could be as a tax refund. Why credits rule: Like all tax credits, the EITC is a dollar-for-dollar offset of any tax you owe. Let's say your tax…

Most taxpayers who file federal returns also must do the same for their state taxes. And most those state filings tend to conform to federal laws. That means that, among other things, state deadlines usually are the same as the ones set by the Internal Revenue Service. This year, it also means that state tax refunds, like their federal counterparts, are likely to be later than usual. Feb. 15 delay for certain refunds: Millions of taxpayers who claim the federal Earned Income or additional child tax credits already are dealing with delayed refund checks from Uncle Sam. The IRS is…

This post was updated March 22, 2018. Do you have to file a return? Don't shoot the messenger, but the answer usually is yes. If you are a U.S. citizen or resident who made money last year, whether you must tell the Internal Revenue Service about it depends on three things: Your gross income, Your filing status, and Your age. The IRS created the table (shown as Chart A in the 2017 Form 1040 instructions) below to give you an idea of whether you should start getting your filing material together. 2017 Filing Requirements for Most Taxpayers   If your filing…

Tax filing season 2017 opens today! Yes, that is cheering you're hearing. It's from folks who file their taxes early, usually because they are getting refunds. They also are fortunate that they have all the materials they need to fill out their returns. The key document for most taxpayers is their W-2 form. Employers aren't required to get these out until the end of the month, but some companies are quite efficient. And some taxpayers this year are going to discover something new on their W-2s. Verification code addition: Around 50 million of these officially named Wage and Income Statements…

When Donald J. Trump assumed the U.S. presidency at noon on Friday, Jan. 20, he and his staff also took over the White House website. The image above is the only glimpse of Trump’s taxes the new president has provided. It’s a photo via Twitter of him signing his purported 2014 federal return on Oct. 15, 2015. Although the 45th president’s people made some major changes to the content Trump’s predecessor had posted, they did leave one feature untouched, the We the People petition generator. This option lets people petition the White House for action on whatever is near and…

NOTE: This post was updated on Jan. 13, 2019, to reflect Free File changes for the 2019 tax-filing season. Free File 2019 opened on Jan. 11. Have you tried it out yet? The partnership between Uncle Sam and the private tax software industry has been around since 2003. This year, a dozen companies are offering their services to eligible taxpayers. The Internal Revenue Service and the Free File Alliance say these participating software manufactures should meet the filing needs of 70 percent of the more than 150,000 million taxpayers expected to send in 2018 tax returns this year. Does free…

A Jacksonville, Florida, mother and father finally saw their daughter after being separated for 18 years. Kamiyah Mobley was known as Alexis Manigo when she took this undated Instagram selfie with Gloria Williams, the woman she grew up thinking was her birth mother. Kamiyah Mobley was a newborn when Gloria Williams, 51, allegedly posed as a nurse and took her from her birth mother in Jacksonville, Florida.  Now Kamiyah, who grew up as Alexis Manigo, is getting to know her birth parents, Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken. The young woman, however, says the woman accused of taking her when she…

Rep. Mick Mulvaney is going to have to answer some nanny tax questions if he hopes to become President-elect Donald Trump's budget director. Rep. Mick Mulvaney speaks to some of his South Carolina constituents on last September's Constitution Day. (Photo by Erik B. Corcoran via Twitter) The South Carolina Republican was elected to Congress in 2010 as part of the midterm Tea Party wave. Since then, the man whom some have called a debt warrior has been a major player in the conservative Freedom Caucus and has focused on ways to cut federal spending. He probably should have focused on…

The early part of any new year demands we be tax multitaskers. As we're getting ready to file last year's returns, we also must start planning moves that affect this year's taxes. For the next few days, though, it's time for those of us who pay estimated taxes to focus on 2016. We have to make our final 1040-ES payment to close out that tax year. According to the usual Internal Revenue Service calendar, that final fourth quarter payment is due Jan. 15. But calendar quirks this year mean a change in that deadline. The 15th is on Sunday and…

Tax filing season 2017 really is here. Some folks have already filed their tax year 2016 federal return (soooo jealous!) even though the Internal Revenue Service won't start processing the submitted forms until Jan. 23. Others of us are still waiting for the tax documents we need to fill out our forms. If you're in the still-waiting group, now's a good time to consider just what you will need to accurately and easily complete your return. To help, here's the 2017 version of the ol' blog's tax filing checklist. It's a good idea at the start of each filing season…

Reviewed and updated Dec. 1, 2021 A tax preparer helps a client file her taxes. (U.S. Army photo)  Every year, most of us fill out our annual tax return using tax preparation software. Through the October 2021 extending filing deadline, the Internal Revenue Service reported that it had received almost 152 million returns, or just more than 90 percent, that were computer prepared and e-filed. But most of those electronically prepared 1040s actually were completed by tax professionals. No kidding. Tax pros handled 84.4 million versus 67.3 million that were self-prepared by taxpayers. That’s a 5.3 percent increase of tax preparer use over…

Donald Trump doesn't move into the Oval Office for 15 more days, but the Republican-control Congress is working on legislation for him to sign into law shortly after he settles into his new digs. Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was on CNBC's Squawk Box this week to discuss House efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare. Click image to watch the full interview. One of the president-elect's campaign promises was to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known (for a while longer) as Obamacare. That won't be easy, either politically and pragmatically. Delayed repeal effect:…

It's that time of year again, tax season. Whether you're working on your Form 1040 (or 1040A or 1040EZ) yourself or turning your annual tax-filing task over to a professional, you'll want to check out the Daily Tax Tip. It will be there at the top of the ol' blog's right column through the April filing deadline. A new tip will be posted each weekday. All also will be archived on their own monthly tax tip pages — January 2017 is posted, with February, March and April going live when those months arrive — so you can check them out whenever the…

The first Friday the 13th of 2017 is lucky for some taxpayers. That's the day that Free File once again opens, allowing eligible folks to electronically prepare and file their 2016 tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service hasn't yet issued an official announcement about Free File 2017, but if you peruse the IRS web site (c'mon, I know I'm not the only one doing this!) you'll find the agency has updated its Free File page, a screenshot excerpt of which is shown above.   UPDATE: It's official! The IRS says you can now access Free File by going to IRS.gov and…

There weren’t any major tax bills in 2016. That’s going to change in some form in 2017 now that the Republicans control Congress and the White House. via GIPHY But there still were plenty of tax-related matters that got attention last year. Below is my list of top 10 tax stories of 2016, starting with the one I saw as most important. And as a bonus, I also pulled out my slightly cracked crystal ball — really, who saw the presidential election turning out like it did? — to forecast five tax issues that we’re likely to see in 2017. Top…

Hello, 2017. For some of us, you sure took your sweet time. Others think you arrived a tad too soon. Few of us, however, are as ready to get our taxes as done-diddly-done as is Ned Flanders, Homer Simpson's annoying cheery neighbor. If you click the image, you'll see a GIF that gives you a good idea of Ned Flanders' obsessive-compulsive tendencies. While even a dedicated tax geek like myself thinks Neddie is a bit too filing gung-ho for the first day of the New Year, we all should take advantage of January's 31 days to get our 2016 taxes in…

One of the big sticks that the Internal Revenue Service wields is penalties for our mistakes or willful disregard of tax laws. Some of the penalties were increased in 2016 thanks to law changes. Others are hiked each year if inflation so warrants. Here's a roundup of some major tax penalties changes ahead in 2017. Don't file, pay more: The biggie for individual taxpayers is the charge for late filing. In 2016, if you filed a return more than 60 days after the due date or any extension to file that you got, then you faced a penalty of the…

America's 538 electors are meeting today in their state capitals to cast votes that will make the Nov. 8 presidential election official. Although a handful of electors vowed not to vote for Donald J. Trump despite their states' election results, The Donald is expected to garner received more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to ensure he will become the 45th U.S. president next month. Click screen shot to view the ABC News/Good Morning America preview report on today's Electoral College vote. Crazy election cycle continues: The controversy surrounding the penultimate step — the vote won't be final until…