TaxCure Blog

This year’s federal tax filing deadline is April 18, 2011 (today), with April 15th still being the tax filing deadline for state income tax returns. The federal deadline was extended to today because Emancipation Day was moved to April 15th (last Friday) instead of Saturday, April 16th. Therefore, because of this local holiday, the IRS moved the tax filing deadline to today. So what happens if you miss the April 18th federal tax deadline?

If you were a first-time homebuyer and claimed the first-time homebuyer tax credit (FTHB) when you purchased your home in 2008, it is time to start paying the government back in most cases since repayment of the credit starts in the 2nd taxable year following the year of purchase. Therefore, starting with your 2010 return, you now have 15 years to pay back the credit you earned on your 2008 return. If however, you took advantage of the homebuyer tax credits later on say in 2009 or 2010, you most likely will not need to pay back the homebuyer tax credit that you received (there are certain exceptions).

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985 enabled workers previously covered under a group health plan to continue their benefits after an involuntary or voluntary job loss, a decrease in the number of working hours, and in other situations. Basically for eligible participants, COBRA extends group health insurance benefits to individuals and qualified family members should their benefits be reduced due to termination or reduced hours. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (with proceeding legislation extending provisions) allowed for a 65% reduction in the health insurance premiums for workers and their families if:

If you’re a receipt hoarder, tax time is like Christmas. There are so many items that can be deducted, and each year the list grows even longer. There may even be many expenditures that you have that you weren’t even aware that you could deduct, as several were extended with the Tax Relief Act of 2010.

The IRS issues a tax refund when the tax liability of the filer is less than the taxes withheld or paid during the tax year. Withholding calculators are available to assist taxpayers in determining the amount of taxes to withhold throughout the year.  When the withholding amount matches the actual amount of taxes owed, more money remains in your paycheck instead of in the hands of the government.  It would be the best situation for taxpayers, however, it is not a foolproof strategy.  There may be times when a tax refund is still owed to the filer.  The recipient then has the option to either spend or save their refund.  Those interested in saving may want to consider purchasing US savings bonds. This year the IRS announced you could buy U.S. I Series Bonds for someone else other than yourself.  Here we look at this option and how you can make it work for you.

Do you need to find tax information from past years? If so, do you know how you can get it? First, you should determine what it is you need. Are you missing W-2 information, line item information or do you need a copy of your entire tax return? These are the items most often needed when resolving tax problems and here is information that can help you obtain the information you need.

Nas, or Nasir Jones, the famous rapper, actor, and musician, who has 9 Grammy awards, is in a feud with the IRS very much like he was with Jay-Z at the beginning of the last decade.

Alvin Joiner, aka Xzibit, the famous rapper, actor, and TV host, has even more IRS unpaid taxes than what was previously reported in the past. Xzibit, besides having a few singles that made the Billboard charts, was an actor in movies such as “XXX:State of the Union,” “Gridiron Gang,” and “8 Mile” to name a few. He is also well known for starring in the show “Pimp my Ride.”

Even though there is a general understanding of how taxes are used and an acceptance that a country needs to collect these revenues from its citizens to provide goods and services, nobody really wants to pay taxes. This feeling is actually quite natural because paying taxes is essentially giving away a percentage of your hard-earned income. However, taxes are not optional and there are laws put in place to govern exactly how much is collected and penalties for those who try to avoid paying. Despite these penalties, there are always tax scams that aim to hide some money from the tax collector. The IRS is well aware of these schemes and they produce a list of a dozen such tax crimes every year. A few of them are listed below.

The Affordable Care Act was passed earlier this year to provide health care benefits to millions of Americans.