If you have an adventurous, thrill-seeking personality, your life may never be complete until you’ve solicited an income tax audit from the Internal Revenue Service. There is good news and bad news for you. The good news is that audits have been more frequent in past years, so the chance of being audited has increased. ... Continue reading this article…

With the holidays approaching, many companies are preparing their bonus checks, and employees who are looking forward to their bonuses are concerned about tax consequences. I gave up this “extra” part of my corporate pay for the benefit of working for myself when I left my day job last year. If this year were anything ... Continue reading this article…

Although the tax code is mired with decades-old rules, fixed up with temporary bandages every year, and convoluted, the IRS is still able to produce something fresh, modern, and simple. Today, the government agency released its free application for iPhone and Android phones, IRS2Go. The app simplifies the process of checking the status of your ... Continue reading this article…

If you purchased a house in 2008, beware of this new change on the 2010 income tax returns. Some taxpayers who claimed the first-time home buyer tax credit will be required to pay the credit back to the government this April. The initial $7,500 tax credit was available to homeowners who purchased their first house ... Continue reading this article…

First enacted in 2006, the charitable IRA rollover is a way to let certain taxpayers reduce their tax liability. Individuals who own an IRA must begin taking minimum distributions at age 70½, and those distributions could increase the tax bill at a time when there may not be much income. While the tax bill will ... Continue reading this article…

When Congress and the President extended the Bush-era tax cuts, taxpayers subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) received a break. As Leigh Mutert, CPA discussed in our recent podcast interview, this is something middle class taxpayers need to know about now, because it effects the 2010 income returns that are being filed from now ... Continue reading this article…

When Congress passed the Tax Hike Prevention Act earlier this year, it included an economic stimulus in the form of a payroll tax holiday. As Leigh Mutert, CPA explained in our podcast interview, the payroll tax will be reduced in 2011 from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. As a result, paychecks will be a little more than ... Continue reading this article…

President Obama offered a framework for the tax-related aspects of spurring the economy moving forward. The foundation of the proposal, which conflicts with a bill that has already passed the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, is the full extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, even for the wealthiest taxpayers. The proposal also calls for an extension ... Continue reading this article…