As we get deeper into the 2019 tax season, some taxpayers are experiencing a delay in receiving their tax refunds. The old adage that if you are expecting a refund you should file early seems to be coming under fire a bit in recent years, but none so much as the 2019 tax season. But why?
Taxpayers know that there are tax deductions out there to be utilized to reduce the taxes paid on your income. Most are aware of the common deductions, but there are many deductions that simply get overlooked by most taxpayers.
In recent years, the economy has been having its share of ups and downs. When businesses and private citizens want to secure financing from financial institutions to make large purchases, the economy can greatly influence the bank’s willingness to loan funds. In an unknown or down-turned economy, the installment sale lends itself as a great alternative option. An installment sale occurs when property is sold with at least one payment being made in the year of the sale, and at least one payment being made in the tax year after the sale is completed. Generally, the buyer will make regular payments to the seller to complete the debt owed on the sale. This is mostly done in the real estate environment but may also transpire in business sales as well. To qualify under the IRS definition, the property sold must be something other than publicly traded securities, and the seller cannot be a dealer of that particular piece of property.
For most standard wage earners, preparing for your tax filing is fairly simple. You receive a Form W2 in the mail and unless you have other rental properties or other complications, your return is relatively straightforward. But for the freelancer, things aren’t quite as simple.
We’ve all heard it before. That voice on the other end of the line that states that she or he is from the United States Treasury Department and you have an unpaid debt that needs to be settled, or else … With the reduction in their workforce, the Internal Revenue Service has been authorized to utilize private debt collectors. This has further complicated authenticity protocols for the taxpayer. As tax season comes to a close, the increase in scams is well documented. It is important to know what the Internal Revenue Service will and will not do if you do in fact owe a debt.
Most of us have heard of the term Alternative Minimum Tax, Alt Min Tax, or AMT. But what is it? Alternative Minimum Tax is a tax system that parallels the standard tax systems and adds an additional level of taxation to baseline income tax for certain individuals, corporations, estates and trust. Traditional tax is adjusted for certain items and computed differently for AMT. Some of these items are depreciation, medical expenses, state taxes, certain mortgage interest, real estate and personal property taxes. AMT was first introduced in 1969 when Congressed determined that a portion of the population with high incomes, roughly one-hundred-fifty-five million taxpayers, were able to utilize tax deductions and other tax breaks to the point where they were paying almost nothing in taxes. The Reagan Administration created what we currently know as Alternative Minimum Tax that included more widespread exemptions and deductions while eliminating some of the investment deductions that only applied to the very wealthy.
We’ve all thought it… Sitting on the beach in a tropical place while attending a quick meeting via your laptop before hitting the waves in the afternoon sun. Many people imagine that all they must do is get a work Visa, wave good-bye to family and friends and head to sunnier shores for a bit. Before you jump ship, or hop a plane, there are important tax items to take into consideration. The Internal Revenue Service will not ignore you just because you live in a remote village on a Fijian island. United States citizens (and resident aliens) for the most part, are subject to federal income tax on all worldwide income. There are a few ways to exclude some up to all of that income, depending on what you earn and how far you are willing to go to make that income not taxable to the federal government.
As the IRS has noted in its alerts to the public, a variety of different tax scams continue to rob people of millions of dollars and trick them into handing over sensitive personal information. Scammers use the regular mail, telephone, fax or email to set up their victims. This article, based directly on a number of IRS publications, is an update to prior blog articles that look at different, new scams affecting individuals, businesses, and tax professionals and offer tips on what do if you if you spot a tax scam.
An adoption tax credit is a tax credit offered to adoptive parents to encourage adoption. Section 36C of the United States Internal Revenue code offers a credit for “qualified adoption expenses” paid or incurred by individual taxpayers.
The tax code provides an adoption credit of up to $13,570 of qualified expenses (in 2017) for each child adopted, whether via public foster care, domestic private adoption, or international adoption.
Do you feel overwhelmed around tax time when trying to select a qualified and suitable tax return preparer? The Internal Revenue Service has published the following Tax Topic 254 as a guide for taxpayers when selecting a tax return preparer.