The Internal Revenue Service continues its efforts to get more taxpayers interacting with the agency electronically. The latest move is enhancing business taxpayer accounts. Upgrades for business filers: The business tax account, or BTA, was launched last fall as a way for certain business taxpayers to view and make balance-due payments online. With the latest expansion, an eligible business taxpayer can use a BTA to pay Federal Tax Deposits (FTDs), and see and make a payment on their full balance due. The account is also now accessible in Spanish with more translations planned. Entities that can open a BTA: You…

Working in a restaurant is a first job for many young people. It’s also their introduction to taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service announced today an extension of the current Free File program through 2029.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Danny Werfel speaks to students, faculty, and IRS guests at the Kogod Tax Center at American University in Washington, D.C., about the tax agency’s digital transformation plan.

The Internal Revenue Service IRS is expected to process more than 160 million individual and business tax returns this filing season. Through March 15, the IRS had received nearly 71.6 million individual returns. Some taxpayers probably put off filing in the hopes that the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act would be enacted by Tax Day. Several of its provisions could help both personal and business filers. Whether that will happen is still unclear, as the tax bill that cleared the House has hit a lot of speed bumps in the Senate. Other taxpayers, however, aren’t that concerned about tax…

The first Direct Filer was a satisfied IRS employee who got a $400 tax refund. However, GOP opponents of the program say it was wrongly established and misspends tax dollars. UPDATE, Sept. 5, 2025: Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. Following a soft launch, the Internal Revenue Service today, March 12, officially opened Direct File to all eligible taxpayers in the pilot program’s 12 participating states. The no-cost tax preparation and e-filing program cuts out the commercial tax middleman, allowing certain taxpayers able to complete their annual filing task by…

UPDATE, Sept. 5, 2025: Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. UPDATE, Monday, March 4, 2024: Attention my fellow Texans and taxpayers in 11 other Direct File pilot states. I got an email today from the IRS letting me know that the program is now accepting returns from eligible new participants. You can find more on this free, direct to the IRS tax preparation and e-filing option in the post below, as well as at the IRS.gov Direct File page. A recent poll indicates most taxpayers support a direct-to-IRS option Direct…

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel speaks at an Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day event as part of the agency’s annual effort to promote the valuable tax credit.

Tax season 2024 officially starts on Jan. 29, and millions of taxpayers are getting ready to deliver their returns that day to the Internal Revenue Service.

UPDATE, Sept. 5, 2025: Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. Feeling adventurous this tax filing season? If you live in one of 12 states, you can be a guinea pig for the Internal Revenue Service’s Direct File pilot program. Direct File will be available when the 2024 tax filing season officially opens on Jan. 29. The participating states are Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. This IRS-offered test of free tax preparation and e-filing will be available via smartphone, laptop,…

There’s so much to see in Florence,  but visitors will have to stay in hotels. This year, the popular Italian destination ended short-term residential rentals. (Photo via Wikipedia Commons) …U.S. property owners are well aware that when their homes are regularly used as short-term rentals, taxes are involved. Now that financial factor is gaining more traction abroad. The short-term rental platform Airbnb agreed last week to pay 576 million euros ($628 million as of today’s conversion rate) to settle a years-long dispute with Italy over unpaid rental taxes. That’s less than the around 779 million euros ($849 million) in taxes…

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told Senate Finance Committee members the tax agency’s new, expansive plans to enforce federal tax laws will include AI to target wealthy and corporate tax evaders.

Labor Day isn’t a holiday for all workers. (Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash) …Labor Day is a day off for many workers. But entrepreneurs probably put in regular shifts this first Monday in September. When your small business depends primarily on you, you tend to work even on holidays. Since you’re busy being the boss, I won’t take up too much of your time. But whether you’re a new business owner or have been the boss for years, it’s always good to stay on top of your tax responsibilities. Here are some tax basics for all of us self-employed…

State programs complement federal tax breaks for energy-saving commercial and residential property improvements. These pups probably would be cooler inside under the A/C instead of atop the condenser. As a general rule, your cooling system works better when you keep the outside air conditioning unit clear of everything, including pets! ….My phone’s battery is being drained by the summer heat. No, not because I’m using it outdoors. I rarely leave my climate-controlled haven. It’s being sucked of power because I’m getting an inordinate number of alerts about how freakin’ hot it is in my part of Texas, as well as places…

Photo by Olga DeLawrence on Unsplash .If you didn’t file a 2019 tax return and missed out on that tax year’s refund, you have less than a week to collect your money. You must file that old tax return, which originally was due on July 15, 2020, to account for COVID-19 pandemic delays that year, by July 17. That’s next Monday. The Internal Revenue Service announced this fast-approaching deadline, and I blogged about it, back in April. You can find details in that post, July 17, 2023, is deadline to claim $1.5 billion in 2019 tax year refunds. But since people,…

Updated, Thursday, May 25, 2023 (more in UPDATE paragraph below) The interior of the U.S. Supreme Court (Photo by Phil Roeder, Flickr via Wikipedia) April is not a fun fiscal month for a lot of us. In addition to Tax Day, when many of us, including the hubby and me, owe the U.S. Treasury a bit, along with an estimated tax payment, it is property appraisal time here in Texas. The last couple of years, that’s been particularly distressing. If we were putting our house on the market like a couple of our neighbors, we’d be happy that we could…

Whatever your reason for moving, be it a temporary disaster displacement or settling into your forever dream home, you need to let the Internal Revenue Service know where you are.

Tax Day comes four times a year for millions of taxpayers. We (yes, I’m one of them) must make these added payments to Uncle Sam. Here’s a look at these added tax tasks required on the 15th of each April, June, September, and January.

When it comes to paycheck tax withholding, you want to get it just right to avoid a bear of a tax problem. Here’s how to make the appropriate changes.

Casino sportsbooks like this one in Las Vegas still take plenty of sports bets, but thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling allowing states to open up sports gambling within their borders, this year’s Super Bowl wagering broke betting records.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in Washington, D.C., in 1963 where he delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. (Photo via Wikimedia) …On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day federal holiday, the focus once again is on public service. It’s a way to honor The Rev. Dr. King’s commitment to helping those who need it the most. It’s also a time when we rightfully recall the civil rights leader’s most famous speech, his delivery of his “I have a dream” vision of equality in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. But King also knew that hard, practical work was…

The tax code can help when it comes to some medical costs. One of the best tax breaks is the multi-tax-favored Health Savings Account.

The IRS is finally making progress in working through its COVID closure backlog of paper tax returns.

A withholding error in the the payroll system used by the Texas Military Department means some Operation Lone Star troops didn’t have enough federal tax withheld from their pay. They’ll have to make up the difference when they file their returns.

The U.S. Continental Navy ship Alfred at its commissioning at Philadelphia on Dec. 3, 1775, was captured in this oil painting by W. Nowland Van Powell. America’s earliest sailors also were the new nation’s first whistleblowers.

Millions of taxpayers are facing their first tax payment for 2022 on Monday, April 18. No, I’m not talking about any tax due you sent along with the 2021 return you filed or are frantically working on this last week before Tax Day. That money counted toward last year’s taxes. I’m talking about the taxpayers who will be paying a separate amount to cover their earnings during the first quarter of 2022. Yep, it’s estimated tax time again. And yep, the first payment of the current tax year coincides with any tax due for the previous one, making Tax Day…

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted millions to work from home. The simplified home office tax deduction could pays off these small businesses.

The Great Resignation created by folks deciding not to return to their jobs after extended COVID-19 absences has led to a lot of new businesses. That means there a many new bosses out there, most of them dealing with a different part of the Internal Revenue Service for the first time. As business owners, they potentially face new types of taxes. Exactly which taxes depend largely on how their new company is established. That’s why selection of a business entity is a major tax decision. Business entity options: As part of 2021’s National Small Business Week, sponsored annually by the…

Who hasn’t felt this way at work from time to time? This year, after COVID-forced reassessment of their jobs, millions decided to quit. (Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels) …The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things, including workplaces. Where offices stayed open or reopened, there are the coronavirus precautions, such as work station spacing and staff masking. Other offices are allowing or requiring their staff to work remotely. Hello home offices (that, sorry, likely aren’t tax deductible) and Zoom glitches. COVID also gave us the worst-case scenario for too many workers. Reduced consumer demand meant some businesses needed…

Rather than heavy equipment, the IRS needs legislative and fiscal help to close its $1 trillion Tax Gap.

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.

Being the boss can be fulfilling, exciting and, if profitable, mean more tax responsibilities, like paying self-employment taxes. (Photo by Zen Chung via Pexels.com) …There are a lot more self-employed taxpayers this filing season, thanks to (you guessed it) the COVID-19 pandemic. People whose hours were reduced at their full-time jobs made up (or tried to) the lost income with side gigs. Others whose salaried positions were eliminated embraced their entrepreneurial spirit and became their own bosses. Now they are filing their tax returns for the first time with self-employment income. That, of course, means encountering another form, Schedule SE.…

Winter can be beautiful. And harsh. Major winter storms also could cause property damage. If it’s a declared major disaster, you might be able to claim your losses on your tax return. Here’s how.

… The end of the disappearing stream water feature in our backyard. The installation was a home improvement. My work today to shore up a part of it was home maintenance. The differences have tax break implications. (Photo by Kay Bell) …I spent most of today taking care of home repairs that I felt confident doing. It’s not a long list. I am not really a do-it-yourself kind of person when it comes to most things around the house. Still, even though I’ve worked from home for years, being stuck here more than usual because of the COVID-19 pandemic has…

…It’s a bit hard to keep track if you’re still isolating due to the coronavirus pandemic, but welcome to another Monday federal holiday. Today is Columbus Day. Yes, it’s still an official federal holiday. The White House issued an announcement lauding namesake Christopher Columbus that’s getting a lot of pushback on social media from folks who prefer to use this October day to celebrate the United States’ indigenous populations. We should use this day to learn about the history of indigenous people.#IndigenousPeoplesDay so for the next 24 hours this account will be a flood of me RTing Native excellence, educational…

My desk in my home office, which I deduct when I file my taxes. …Not that I’m paranoid, but sometimes it seems like unseen others somehow know what’s going on in my life. The latest example is tax related. Earlier this week, a #TaxTwitter pal asked that social media group about home office tax deductions. Granted, this is not an unusual question since the coronavirus pandemic has meant many of us have been working from home, a lot of us for the very first time. Today, the Internal Revenue Service issued a tax tip on what taxpayers need to know…

The first two estimated tax payments for 2020 aren’t due this week because of COVID-19 changes, but it’s still time to look at how much you owe via 1040-ES and how best to figure those amounts. I’ve paid estimated taxes for almost as long as I’ve filed taxes. These payments, in case this tax is new to you, are the equivalent of withholding. With estimated taxes, however, we taxpayers must cover the income (and usually other) tax on things like freelance earnings or investment payouts since we get the money without anything being taken out beforehand for Uncle Sam. There…

Topher Grace is known by millions of fans as Eric Forman of television’s “That ’70s Show.” But when he’s not acting, he also has a side gig.

Reviewed and revised Feb. 23, 2024 You don’t have to have this many candles on your birthday cake to use Form 1040-SR. Hitting age 65 qualifies you to use file this new form. If there’s one Internal Tax Service constant, it’s that its myriad tax forms are always seem to change. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes just a smidge. That happened en masse in the wake of the wake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. Back then, Uncle Sam’s tax collector that year proposed tweaks to the Form 1040 and elimination of three of the six schedules…

Channel catfish photo by US Army Corps of Engineers via Wikimedia Commons . Folks in Belzoni, Mississippi, aren’t thinking about taxes today. They’re celebrating the 44th Annual World Catfish Festival. But in addition to being the catfish capital of the world (the closing of its museum notwithstanding), Belzoni is the county seat of the most audited county in the United States. Residents of Humphreys County, a rural county in the Mississippi Delta, is one of the country’s poorer counties, with more than a third of its residents living below the poverty line. Those low incomes also probably contribute to a new…

I admit it, as a native Texan I get a kick out of this depiction of Lone Star State residents’ skewed point of view of the United States. This humorous map was part of a calendar I bought at Marfa Book Company while revisiting my West Texas roots a few years ago.

Each year, the Internal Revenue Service assesses estimated tax penalties against millions of taxpayers. This added money typically is due the IRS when a taxpayer pays too little total tax during the year. The last time the IRS released complete estimated tax penalty data was three years ago. The federal tax agency said back then that the average estimated tax penalty, which is based on the interest rate charged by the IRS on unpaid tax, was about $130. Back in September 2015, the IRS said it was seeing more taxpayers run into the estimated tax penalty. The number jumped about 40…

After years of being lambasted for efforts to regulate tax preparers, the Internal Revenue Service is on a roll in its efforts to oversee certain tax professionals. A recently introduced bipartisan Senate bill would give the IRS the authority that many argue it doesn’t have to set standards for tax professionals who aren’t subject to other professional guidelines. This is not the first time such legislation has been introduced. But those previous bills never went anywhere. However, the tide now seems to be shifting a bit in the tax agency’s favor. Influential tax professional groups are among this latest legislative…

Freelancing means more flexibility, such as where to work and the option to wear more comfortable attire. It also means you have some new tax responsibilities.

The role of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in preventing the Internal Revenue Service from aggressively regulating tax preparers has prompted some questions about such oversight. Currently, the IRS uses a voluntary tax professional oversight system, but is expected to continue to push for Congressional authority to implement more stringent tax preparer regulations. Those who agree with the IRS (like the agency’s National Taxpayer Advocate) argue that regulating tax pros is necessary in order to protect taxpaying clients. It also, they contend, would lead to more accurate tax returns and ensure a fairer and more efficient tax system Opponents of such regulation,…

Since its appearance in 2003, around 50 million taxpayers have used Free File. As the name indicates, this partnership of the Internal Revenue Service and tax software manufacturers known as the Free File Alliance gives most taxpayers the opportunity to do their taxes on their computers and then e-file them at no cost. But, notes Pro Publica in an article co-published with Quartz, the number of Free Filing taxpayers comes to just around 3 percent of eligible households. That, according to the article by Tik Root, means that folks have spent around $1 billion on tax prep and filing fees…

Photo by Sandra Seitamaa on Unsplash …School’s out. Summer is here, at least unofficially judging by the temperatures. And thousands of Americans are planning vacations. There also are a sizable number of homeowners hoping to make some extra bucks off all those seasonal travelers. Home rental popularity: Alternative accommodation, as the segment is known in the industry, appeals to those looking to immerse themselves in a new place culturally. Other opt for such lodging for the privacy (no paper-thin hotel walls), convenience (cooking meals instead of always eating out; use of the owner’s Wi-Fi or streaming services) or amenities (a…

Lots of my neighbors are looking to sell, even though for us non-military homeowners there is no longer a tax break for moving. However, many homeowners still will pocket tax-free sales cash that should help cover at least some of the relocation expenses.

If you filed a return on April 17 (or the 18th thanks to the Internal Revenue Service’s Tax Day systems glitch), but didn’t pay your full tax bill, Uncle Sam is coming for you. OK, not in person (yet). So you can still answer when someone rings your doorbell. But the IRS says in the coming weeks it will be sending out billing notices to 2017 tax return filers who still owe money. These tax bills actually will be in the form of IRS notices, specially notices CP14 and CP501, which are frequently mailed in the months of June and July.…

When we pay a tax pro for help, we trust that person. Sometimes we shouldn’t.  Most of use tax professionals to help get through tax season. Thankfully, most paid tax preparers are honest. They want to help their clients meet their tax responsibilities by legally paying the least amount of tax possible under the Internal Revenue Code. But most is not all. Some tax preparers run fly-by-night operations where they simply look to make a quick buck off of honest individuals seeking tax assistance. These pros, and I use the description advisedly, often get paid based on a percentage of taxpayers’ refunds, which they inflate by advising…

Most taxpayers now are focusing on completing their annual tax returns. But if we have to deal with the Internal Revenue Service to finish that Form 1040, or if the agency subsequently has some questions about it, Uncle Sam’s tax collector wants us to know we have some inalienable tax rights. The 10 components of Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) are this week’s By the Numbers figure. Here they are: 1. The Right to Be Informed: Taxpayers have the right to know what they need to do to comply with the tax laws. They are entitled to clear explanations of…

Tax professionals are feeling all “Mean Girls” Gretchen Wieners right now. Thanks to the new tax law, their services are in high demand.

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.

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.

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…

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,…

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.

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…

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…

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…

No, we still haven’t seen Donald Trump’s federal tax returns. Donald Trump shared this photo on his Twitter account last October of him signing what he said was his 2015 federal tax return. However, it was old state returns that have given us a glimpse into the Republican presidential candidate’s tax bills. …The information about his $916 million business loss in 1995 comes from state tax returns filed with New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for that year and which were obtained by the New York Times. While that yuge loss could have, as the Times notes, served as a…

Be still, my heart. Daveed Diggs talked about taxes! Diggs, one of the Tony-nominated stars of the Broadway smash “Hamilton,” was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night. He of course talked about his dual roles as America’s favorite fighting Frenchman Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s $10 Founding Father musical. Pre-Broadway jobs: However, just before getting the “Hamilton” parts, the accomplished rapper was at home in Los Angeles and was between gigs. To make ends meet, Diggs delivered catering “in my tore-up Honda Civic … mostly fajitas … at minimum wage, no less.” When he got the…

Even before the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers players step onto the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, we’ll already have one big winner. Screenshot from NFL Super Bowl 50 trailer on YouTube. The National Football League will pocket millions thanks to the Super Bowl host city’s agreement to hand over all its big game-related sales tax revenue to the league. Yep, the NFL, which made $12 billion over the 2014-15 season, demands that cities awarded the Super Bowl waive or reimburse sales tax on ticket sales and parking passes. What Super Bowl cities lose: That, of course, means that…

Today, Oct. 16, is National Dictionary Day. It was created to honor Noah Webster, the publisher of the first dictionary in 1806. Oct. 16 was chosen because it was the day 257 years ago on which Webster was born. Dictionary Day is a day to learn new words with the help of a dictionary. I’m doing my part by updating — OK, creating in large part — a tax dictionary for the ol’ blog.  Photo by eFile989 via Flickr Creative Commons  Many years ago, I posted a mini-glossary of tax terms. Since that day, I’ve meant to put together a…

I once worked for a company that was waaaaaay into scheduling. I mean years and years ahead scheduling. It always cracked me up when I was asked to put such long-term appointments in my datebook. Sure, I’ll mark my calendar and be around then…maybe. Dates, however, are crucial to taxes. Miss one and, if you owe Uncle Sam, you’ll owe him even more. Tax Day 2016 is April 18: So it’s no surprise that the Internal Revenue Service is already announcing a tweak in connection with the 2016 tax filing deadline. At issue is a confluence of tax deadlines and…

The Internal Revenue Service today officially adopted a 10-point Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Too bad for the tax agency that it wasn’t put in place sooner. The National Taxpayer Advocate says that the document could have helped IRS employees avoid problems in their review of Tea Party and other organizations’ applications for nonprofit tax status. The rights, already guaranteed taxpayers but spread throughout the Internal Revenue Code (and IRS documents), are now conveniently encapsulated in the updated IRS Publication 1. It says all taxpayers have the right to: IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson jointly unveiled…

Singer, songwriter and political and social activist Pete Seeger died last week. He was 94. Seeger was as well known for his commitment to causes that at the time were unpopular as he was for his songs, and that’s saying a lot. After being blacklisted for being a “godless communist,” Seeger turned to the Bible (and gave co-writing credit to Ecclesiastes) to compose Turn, Turn, Turn, one of the most beautiful and timeless songs ever. It became a No. 1 hit for the Byrds in 1965. Other widely beloved Seeger songs include “If I Had Hammer” and “Where Have All…

This just in from the IRS’ Worst Day-Week-Month-Year Ever Department: A group of tax professionals has officially lent its support to the legal effort to stop the Internal Revenue Service from testing and requiring continuing education of certain tax preparers. In January, a federal judge halted, at least for the time being, the IRS’ Registered Tax Return Preparer (RTRP) program. The idea, formulated during the tenure of former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, was to set up a system that would help ensure that more tax returns are correctly completed. The RTRP rules do not apply to Enrolled Agents (EAs), attorneys…

Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker credited with helping break open Uncle Sam’s investigation into secret untaxed Swiss accounts, is about to be $104 million richer. The Internal Revenue Service has recommended that Birkenfeld, who served around two and a half years in federal prison for a fraud conspiracy conviction related to the case, get that amount of money as a reward. It’s the largest whistleblower amount ever awarded by the IRS. Birkenfeld’s insider info helped the IRS collect more than $5 billion in unpaid taxes from foreign banks and nearly 15,000 individuals who used their services to avoid paying…

Recent tax policy debate has focused on two proposals: Although these two tax proposals are about different areas of taxation, they share one interesting component. Both are named for a person. Obama was on the road Tuesday (April 10) touting the Buffett Rule, which gets its moniker from financier Warren Buffett. The uber rich Oracle of Omaha ratcheted up the debate over how the wealthy should be taxed with his comments last year about his tax rate vs. that of his secretary. Meanwhile, the current president’s immediate predecessor, for whom our current tax rates are named, was addressing the New…

What the heck is up Mother Nature? I know we humans are an annoying bunch, but do you really have to keep whacking us? In less than 24 hours, strong earthquakes have rattled the East Coast and the Rocky Mountains region. The 5.3 temblor that shook Colorado Monday night was the strongest recorded there in more than a century. It also was felt by residents of Kansas and New Mexico. Then this afternoon, a 5.9 quake centered in Virginia prompted evacuation of buildings in the nation’s capital and shook folks from North Carolina to New Hampshire. It was the strongest…

The man who helped popularize the “starve the beast” philosophy toward government has decided to try to work from within, at least temporarily. Essentially, adherents to this fiscal-political strategy say that by reducing the amount of money coming into the government, that is, by dramatically cutting taxes to effectively create budget deficits, the “beast” of federal government will be forced to shrink via program cuts. Of course, that leads to the battle over just which programs and services to put on this tax starvation diet. Most who support this approach tend to target federal social programs, such as Social Security,…

One of the hardest things about filing your taxes is trying to decipher the forms. You practically have to learn a new, tax- specific language. And the IRS-speak makes that dang VCR manual (yes, a few of us still use those antiquated devices!) seem almost coherent! To help out, Don’t Mess With Taxes is gathering some common tax terms and phrases and their plain English meanings in this post. This is an ongoing list, so don’t be discouraged if the word that’s stumping you isn’t here yet. It soon will be. In fact, just go ahead and e-mail it to…

During this string of hot and dry spring days, it’s hard to image that 25 years ago today, Austin suffered a deadly flood. Austin’s Memorial Day Flood of May 24, 1981, killed 13 people, destroyed 600 homes, flooded dozens of businesses and left $36 million in damages in its wake. The picture below shows damage done to a car dealership along Shoal Creek. Flood photograph courtesy of Austin Public Library and Austin History Center. …The power of water has always captivated me. Much of the fascination is because I grew up in desert West Texas, where not a stream was…

  Time. An artificial construct. A futile attempt by humans to control yet another immutable piece of the universe. What is a second, a minute, an hour, a year? Purely random segmentations that have no real meaning. At least that’s what I tell myself when my birthday rolls around. We have a clock that also has issues with time measurement. It’s a lovely handmade German timepiece that belonged to my grandmother. When I was young and living in the same small West Texas town as my grandparents, I was at their house often. And each time I was there, I…

… and taxes. Granted, the world’s most romantic three words aren’t “Internal Revenue Service.” But when you look at the tax code, you’ll find that sometimes the IRS does play cupid. I know, I know. What about the marriage penalty? Well, that’s a topic that, like most things taxes, has undergone a lot of spin. As is usually the case with taxes, the penalty was primarily situational and, as discussed in this story, provided almost as many couples a benefit when they married as it hurt. But it was a nice hook — who’s for penalizing marriage in this day…

I am so happy for them! Those two kids belong together and I’m glad they finally realized it. Lance and Sheryl are calling off their split? Nick and Jessica, perhaps? No. Ken and Barbie are reunited! Just in time for Valentine’s Day. The New York Times reports that the leggy blonde has dumped interloper Blaine, the Aussie surfer, and is back in Ken’s arms. Or at least standing next to Ken, since neither his nor Barbie’s nonmalleable plastic arms allow for actual embraces. Cynics may question whether it’s true love. After all, it was Barbie who left Ken almost exactly…

Bet on it: The IRS will not collect on most of the Super Bowl wagers.

It’s Friday the 13th. I can hear Count Floyd now: “Oooohhhh. Scary.” It certainly is scary for some celebrities who are facing some potentially costly tax issues. Jury selection began this week for Richard Hatch, the first winner of CBS’s “Survivor.” The IRS contends that he didn’t pay taxes on his $1 million winnings from the popular show. But that’s not the only charge. The jury also will hear government evidence that Hatch spent money designated for a charity he created, filed false tax returns and committed bank, wire and mail fraud. What was he thinking? We first asked that…

The IRS is offering filers a MSRP for getting their taxes done.