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TAXWATCH Tax season is starting for all Americans — but the tax code’s provisions play out very differently for white families compared to families of color, new research says. The tax benefits from some of the most advantageous parts of the federal income-tax code accrue disproportionately to white families, according to Treasury Department findings that show the broader implications of dry tax rules. White families are pulling in more than 90% of the tax benefits that come from lower tax rates for capital gains, more than 90% of the tax benefits from itemized charitable deductions and 90% of the deduction...

If ordinary taxpayers fail to file returns, congressional Democrats hire 87,000 new IRS agents to punish them. Yet if the IRS destroys 30 million “tax information” returns without even processing, those Democrats actively block attempts to demand an explanation. Apparently, Democrats think transparency is unnecessary for tax collectors for the welfare state. For those who missed the original story, some background is in order, especially to understand how astonishingly brazen the Democrats are in refusing to hold the IRS accountable. On May 22, the treasury inspector general for tax administration reported that the IRS deliberately destroyed 30 million returns in...

I think others may have this problem. Perhaps together we may devise a way to solve this. In short, I mailed our federal tax forms, 1040 for 2020 on May 17, 2021. To date, the IRS site tells me they have not processed our forms. Then, the paragraph reads: "The due date has passed. If you've already filed, processing usually takes 21 days (electronic returns) or six weeks (paper returns).If you still need to file, submit your tax return along with any payment due as soon as possible to minimize potential penalties and interest. If you’ve been affected by a...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has updated the main form individual U.S. taxpayers use to report their income to include a question about cryptocurrencies. Following the release earlier this week of the IRS’s long-awaited guidance for reporting crypto-related income, the IRS on Friday circulated a draft of the new Form 1040, Schedule 1, Additional Income and Adjustments to Income. The draft was shared in an email to tax software companies, which the agency also shared with journalists. The sheet, prefaced by a warning that it’s only a draft and not an actual document for filing taxes, asks at the top:...

Key Points Normally you can’t take a tax break for your pet but, under select circumstances, you might be able to. The IRS once allowed an exotic dancer to deduct the cost of breast implants. Is your pet a social media influencer? You just might be considered a small business. ============================================================== You probably know by now that charitable deductions are tax-deductible. But how about the cost of caring for your pet? Or your kid’s clarinet lessons? In select cases, the IRS has permitted taxpayers to deduct off-beat expenses on their tax returns. Here’s the key: Those costs must meet certain...

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out a change in my tax situation, and hope that I'm just stupidly missing something. I turned 65 last year, and I only learned today that I should be eligible for an increased exemption on my federal taxes - it appears to be $1,300 for our situation. But when I look at the 1040 form, I can't see where you enter that amount, or see a line for it. There's a box to check if you turned 65, but I don't see what you do after that. Our taxes have always been...

The GOP's long-promised change is an offshoot of a tax overhaul last year that cut corporate rates and winnowed down the number of individual tax brackets. On Friday, the Treasury Department and IRS unveiled the new postcard, which will replace the current forms 1040, 1040A and 1040 EZ.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that new tax forms, designed to make the filing process clearer and simpler for Americans, will be released next week. “Next week we will be unveiling the new 1040 and it will be a postcard as we promised,” he said during a press conference celebrating the six-month anniversary of the passage of tax reform. “Hardworking taxpayers won’t have to spend nearly as much time filling out their [tax forms].” The 1040 form is the U.S. individual income tax return. Republicans promised to simplify the filing process for taxpayers, famously claiming the forms...

Perhaps you are one of the many Americans who are afraid of preparing their own income-tax returns. If so, let me offer these words of encouragement: You stupid idiot. I say this because doing your own taxes has never been easier, thanks to modern technology such as the telephone, the personal computer and the canned frozen margarita. Take me. I am not a so-called "Certified Public Accountant, " but I have been handling my own taxes for years, using a simple, three-step system: STEP ONE: One week before the April 15 tax deadline, I gather together all my financial records....

President Trump may have pulled the most epic political trolling since, well since the last time he did something like this to a political opponent. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was set to release a big scoop about Trump’s taxes Tuesday, when the White House went and released them right before her show began. Here was the announcement of the scoop that set the political world aflutter from Rachel Maddow’s Twitter account: (TWEET-AT-LINK) She later added the clarification explaining what she had in her possession, writing, “What we’ve got is from 2005… the President’s 1040 form… details to come tonight 9PM ET,...

The tax agency has stopped requiring individual filers to indicate whether they maintained health coverage or paid the mandate penalty as required under the law How much difference does a single line on a tax form make? For Obamacare's individual mandate, the answer might be quite a lot. Following President Donald Trump's executive order instructing agencies to provide relief from the health law, the Internal Revenue Service appears to be taking a more lax approach to the coverage requirement. The health law's individual mandate requires everyone to either maintain qualifying health coverage or pay a tax penalty, known as a...

That trek to South Dakota on your Harley isn’t going to get you a tax deduction. Sorry. Maybe that seems obvious, but someone actually tried to write that off on their taxes, according to the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants. In their defense, the person wore a company shirt and tried to call it an advertising expense. There’s plenty more where that came from. The Society of CPAs did a study on the ridiculous things people have tried to use as deductions – and it’s pretty funny. Business deduction fails: Someone tried to write off their pop-up camper, calling...

Taxpayers accustomed to filing a simplified 1040EZ will not be able to do so if they received health insurance tax credits this year. Some highlights: -- You may have heard that the IRS cannot use liens and levies to collect the law's penalty on people who remain uninsured. But there is no limitation on collection efforts in cases where consumers got too big a tax credit. If your refund isn't large enough to cover the repayment, you will have to write the IRS a check. "They are not messing around," Brandes said. For families, the cap is double the amount...

Four employees at a tax preparation office on Detroit’s east side have been wounded in a shooting after a dispute over a refund check. […] The shooting was reported shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday at Tax City Tax Service. Deputy Police Chief Rodney Johnson said the woman being sought became upset when her tax refund wasn’t ready yet. …

List of IRS Forms that 1040 filers can begin filing in late February or early March 2013January 11, 2013 Late on January 1, 2013, Congress passed HR 8 (Tax Relief Extension Act) which extended almost all of the Federal tax provisions that had expired at the end of 2011 and 2012. The IRS announced on January 9th that they will not accept electronic or paper returns before January 30, 2013, a delay from the original January 22nd beginning date. This is necessary to allow them time to reprogram their systems to comply with the changes included in the Tax Relief...

One of the key questions lurking in the "fiscal cliff" talks — though well below the public's radar — is what happens to the alternative minimum tax — or AMT. Implemented in 1969 to make sure upper-income Americans pay their share of taxes, the AMT has increasingly snared more middle-income Americans over the years because it was never indexed for inflation. During the 2011 tax year for example, the higher tax hit single taxpayers with incomes as low as $48,450 and joint filers making only $74,450. But millions more Americans could be subject to the AMT in their 2012 returns...

Here's why the IRS will require Americans to disclose their personal health ID information starting in 2014 When Obamacare’s individual mandate takes effect in 2014, all Americans who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form. The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”. So why will the Obama IRS require...

Had enough yet? Rick Reiss Friday, May 22nd, 2009. Big government proponents frequently remind us that taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. This line is actually attributed to the former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. While true in some respects, our current tax system is anything but civilized. America now has a government riding roughshod over people and businesses with even higher taxes and more rules and regulations. It is only fitting to remember a quotation by another famous American jurist. “That the power to tax…” wrote US Supreme Court Justice John Marshall “involves the...

TEMECULA: Anti-tax rally set for Wednesday Organizers are preparing for possibility of counter protest By AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer Saturday, April 11, 2009 TEMECULA ---- Guy in Grim Reaper costume. Check. A "Zombama" (a President Barack Obama tax zombie). Check. "Don't Tread On Me" flags. Check. Patriotic and anti-tax songs blaring from a boom box. Check. And that's just the top half of the checklist that Rick Reiss has written up for an anti-tax "tea party" rally scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Temecula's Duck Pond Park. Reiss, a member of the Murrieta-Temecula Republican Assembly, said late last week...

2009 Taxpayer Tea Party proudly brought to you by the FreedomWorks Foundation... Taxed to death and living in Southwest Riverside County, CA? Join us on Wednseday, April 15, 2009 at 11:00 am at the Temecula Duck Pond on the corner of Rancho California and Ynez Road in Temecula. We will be ridding ourselves of some crates of Obama Messianic Tea and fighting off the evil ravenous Zombama, the tax eating zombie. This Temecula Tea Party is valiantly supported by the local Republican clubs TMVRWF and MTRA. See you all there patriots!