Today’s Tax Resolution Tip:
Once you file your yearly tax return, you might be tempted to get rid of all the receipts, forms, calculations and documentation lying around on your living room floor or home office. However, it is important you keep your tax documents for each tax return for at least 7 years. Copies of your tax return should be kept indefinitely.
Your tax returns do not disappear once you file them.
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U.S Tax Court is keeping tabs on every possible tax detail in the hopes to find some extra revenue and tax loopholes are being sought out to try to find funding to fill in the budget deficit. Not free from the examination are clergy members and the tax relief laws that protect them from paying taxes. Back in March the U.S. Tax Court made a surprising ruling to extend a
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The IRS newsletter Ten Tips for Taxpayers Who Owe Back Taxes or Have Other Tax Debt published a few weeks back, alerted Americans seeking tax debt relief there are ten options available to pay off their outstanding tax debt. These new IRS programs and policies are an effort to get delinquent taxpayers to avoid additional fines penalties or tax liens by making easy payment methods available such as a
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Tax Problems Affect 1 out of 6 Americans – If You Need Tax Help, You’re Not Alone!
1 in 6 Americans has a tax problem; that’s approximately 26 million people! In this video, shot at Tax Resolution Services headquarters, I talk about how terrifying IRS tax stress can be and how scared people are with their overwhelming tax problems. I see this happening in my practice every day. The IRS is
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Feel like you deserve to deduct something and push the limits of what is legal? The IRS isn’t putting up with frivolous deduction claims, and in fact, will slap you with a fine.  U.S. legal code 6702 states that “A person shall pay a penalty of $5,000 if such person files what purports to be a return of a tax …and is based on a position which the Secretary has
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The Joint Tax Committee recently released their list of Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2009-2013. The Joint Committee on Taxation is a nonpartisan committee of the United States Congress who assists Members of the majority and minority parties in both houses of Congress on tax legislation (see the website here). In Congress tax expenditures are what we like to call tax breaks or deductions;  the tax rules
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This month I came across a couple of interesting articles from my StumbleUpon I wanted to share with you. Here is a recap of tax news covering topics on all things tax, from news on Innocent Spouse relief, giving to charity, tax scams and more celebrities tax problems.
IRS does ‘the right thing’ for the ‘innocent spouse’ – Michelle Singletary discusses the IRS and their decision to remove the two-year limitation
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Celebrity rapper and actor Ja Rule was sentenced to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay 1.1 million dollars in unpaid taxes on Monday. Ja Rule was quoted by the Associated Press as saying; “I was a young man who made a lot of money — I’m getting a little choked up — I didn’t know how to deal with these finances, and I didn’t have people to guide
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An exchange-traded fund is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks.  An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds, and trades close to its net asset value over the course of the trading day (Wikipedia).  ETF’s are becoming a more popular form of investing, but the structures of the funds can be taxed very differently from your normal run-of-the-mill mutual funds. Laura Saunders and Jason
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Being audited by the IRS can be a scary and stressful situation. Whether you are being audited for tax problems from investment mishaps, offshore accounts or any other reason, it is important to make sure a tax professional is there to make your audit goes as smoothly as possible. Karen E. Klein of the LA Times offers great advice to a reader about to be audited:
Karen: You answered a question
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The IRS has been making huge increases in its workload of audits and taking your tax payments and they won’t be stopping anytime soon.  TRS blogged back in March about the government’s pressure to close the whopping $345 billion tax deficit which in turned caused the IRS to increase audits by 11% last year-targeting both consumers and business owners. Arden Dale’s  article Why Paying Taxes Takes Longer from  SmartMoney, examines
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Last year Congress made some new decisions about the amount of business deductions that can be made on your car purchased after Sept. 8, 2010, and before Jan. 1, 2012. If you are like most business owners, you want to tap into these tax breaks when you can.  Laura Saunders of the Wall Street Journal highlights some great tax relief tips (new and old) you need to know about deductions
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Today’s Tax Resolution Tip:
Do you own a home-based business? Ensure you can easily track your expenses by saving a copy of each and every business transaction and deduction!
While good record keeping is a great practice when it comes to filing taxes, it is all the more important if you own a small home-based business. If the IRS decide to audit your business you need to show proof of every deduction
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Today’s Tax Resolution Tip:
Unfiled tax returns are very dangerous. If you have any delinquent tax returns it is essential that you file your latest tax return, including any prior tax returns you missed out on. Not filing your returns can cause significant problems as time goes on.
File any and all delinquent tax returns as soon as possible. State what you owe. This will save you money and help you avoid
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Laguna Beach resident Stephen McDow woke up one day to find that the IRS had deposited a refund of $110,000 into his checking account. And so he spent it; Over the course of a year McDow spent more than half of the money in paying off his student loan debt, his mortgage and towards the purchase of a new. The catch… the refund did not belong to McDow and it
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