The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may be heading to your house. Recently, the agency announced plans to make in-person visits to high-income taxpayers who have not filed tax returns in 2018 or previous years. Are you worried about a knock on your door? Here is what you need to know.
When you filed your income tax returns for the past tax year, your tax preparer or the software program you were using probably gave an estimate of how much money you would receive back from the government. You were likely very excited to receive your tax refund. You may have planned precisely how you were going to spend it.
In 2017, the IRS hired and paid private tax collection agencies $20 million, but these firms only collected $6.7 million, meaning the IRS lost over $13 million in the process. Besides losing the government money, the program has arguably been a failure in countless other ways.
The last day of the year is just around the corner, and if you’re someone who usually faces a tax bill in April, this is your last chance to lower your tax liability for 2017. Even though there are only a couple of weeks left in the year, there are lots of things you can still do. Here are 10 ways to reduce your 2017 Federal tax liability.
In the United States, federal income tax is just the start. In most cases, you also have to pay state tax, and some municipalities charge local or city income tax as well. All those bills can add up, and you may be wondering “how can I avoid state income tax?” or “can I lower my state tax bill?”
Owing property taxes is scary. Worst case scenario—if you don’t pay the taxes, or you end up with unpaid property taxes for a long period of time, you lose your home. Luckily, there are a lot of options before that happens.
With the 2017 tax season over, you probably already put your tax return behind you and put your tax refund to good use. But what about all that paperwork? How long to keep tax papers? Have you filed your 2016 documents away somewhere never to be gazed upon again? Perhaps the documents are still sitting in a folder on your counter or on top of your printer, or desk? Maybe you’ve even thought about tossing these documents. Find out why it might be a bad idea to toss any tax-related documents away, at least right away. Here is some insight as to how long to keep tax papers.
It’s already mid-April and the tax season is just about to come to a close. For those who still haven’t filed their taxes, the deadline is now just a week away, unless you’ve filed for an extension. However, the deadline to file your federal income tax return is not the only significant tax event that takes place in the month of April. The IRS recently announced that private collection of some overdue federal taxes would begin this month, as well. So what does that mean for you the average taxpayer? Actually, for most taxpayers, it means nothing, but for anyone who owes the government money and has already been contacted by the IRS previously, it could be mean some additional nagging from a private collection agency.
The IRS recently released their annual offer in compromise (OIC) data for 2016. Although the acceptance rate fell in the fiscal year 2014 and 2015, it reached a new all-time high in 2016 with an acceptance rate of 42.86%. That is almost 1% more than the previous all-time high reached in the fiscal year 2013.
When you received your first paycheck, you were probably surprised to discover that what you told you are earning, and what you actually come home with, are two different things. Due to tax withholding from your paycheck, your take-home pay is usually less than you earn.
