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The Internal Revenue Service penalty for tax underpayments has nearly tripled since 2021, putting gig economy workers and consultants at the largest risk of having to cough up big bucks to Uncle Sam. As of Oct. 1, the IRS will now charge 8% interest on estimated tax underpayments, up from 3% two years ago, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The IRS penalty for underpayment of estimated taxes is up sharply this year, with self-employed and freelance workers at the biggest risk of getting hit. The penalty, calculated quarterly based on the Federal Reserve's benchmark rate, hit 8 percent on October 1, up from just 3 percent in early 2021, when Fed rates were near zero. The penalty rate applies to shortfalls in estimated taxes, which self-employed workers pay the IRS quarterly based on their earnings for the period. Employees who have income taxes deducted from their paychecks generally do not have to pay estimated taxes, and are unlikely to...

The IRS announced on Tuesday that it is delaying a controversial tax reporting requirement targeting Americans who made more than $600 online through third-party payment apps like Venmo or PayPal. The rule change – approved by Democrats in March 2021 with the passage of the American Rescue Plan – would have required payments platforms, including Venmo, PayPal, Etsy and Airbnb, to send Form 1099-K to the IRS and users if their transactions totaled more than $600 over the course of the year. Instead, the IRS will treat 2023 as "an additional transition year," meaning that payment apps will not be...

For the second year in a row, the IRS has decided to postpone implementation of a rule change that would affect tax filers who receive business income for their goods and services via payment apps and online marketplaces like Venmo, CashApp, Etsy and Airbnb, among others. The change might have resulted in 44 million more 1099-K forms being sent in January to such filers, including small business owners, freelancers, those with side hustles and gig workers. In explaining why it is postponing implementation again, the IRS cited concern over potential taxpayer confusion and the need to make it easier for...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has revealed that some Americans who were eligible to receive pandemic-era stimulus checks didn't apply for them—and that there's a way they can still claim the money.Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington, on Oct. 16, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)The IRS said in a Nov. 17 announcement that, according to its records, some eligible individuals and families didn't end up collecting economic impact payments—also known as stimulus payments or stimulus checks—that were issued in 2020 and 2021.Those who missed out can still collect the money. The way to do so is through the "recovery...

"If you care about debt and deficits, you should want a well-funded, well-functioning IRS."Biden IRS Launches Audit Into Conservative Org That Helped Tank Nominees For Key Administrative Posts Meet the new IRS. Same as the old IRS. But with a lot more money to be put to the use of pursuing political enemies. In the latest series of Front Page Magazine’s investigative pieces on the IRS complicity in enabling leftist violence and terrorism, I profiled a nonprofit that is integrated with Hamas. The BDS National Committee referred to the Hamas atrocities as the “resistance of the oppressed” and the “powerful...

Former President Donald Trump and Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron offered differing opinions on why this so-called fraud trial is taking place. Trump asserted that "all my loans we paid back in full. No lender lost any money. Why is this trial being held?" Engoron rebutted Trump, saying "because you're just a bad guy." Trump's attempt to read a brief disclaimer document advising lenders to make their own assessment of the value of the property being used as collateral to secure the loans being sought was rebuffed by Engoron. "In my many years of dealing with lenders it has...

US tax brackets will rise by around 5.4 percent next year in line with inflation, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has confirmed. From 2024, the lowest tax rate of 10 percent will apply to those earning up to $11,600, up from $11,000 this year. Meanwhile the highest rate of 37 percent will now apply to workers whose salaries exceed $609,350, up from $578,125 in 2023. Middle-income thresholds all saw similar rises. These higher thresholds could mean savings for millions of workers across all income brackets. They will apply to the 2024 tax year - meaning returns filed in 2025. The...

EXCLUSIVE: The House Ways and Means Committee is demanding answers from the Justice Department on why it charged a former IRS consultant with one count of unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information, including information belonging to former President Trump and thousands of wealthy Americans, despite the individual admitting to two separate disclosures. The former IRS official, Charles Littlejohn, pleaded guilty last month to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax return information. The Justice Department accused him of leaking tax information belonging to former President Trump and "thousands of the nation’s wealthiest individuals" to news outlets between 2018 and 2020. The...

As Joe Biden marched toward the presidency in 2020, Hunter Biden and his legal team scrambled to clean up a trail of delinquent taxes before they became a media scandal. But the future first son allegedly continued to misrepresent his income and deductions to the very accountant he had hired to help, according to once-secret IRS memos made public recently by Congress. The memos show that Jeffrey Gelfound, an Edward White & Company tax accountant hired by Hunter Biden, was a cooperating witness in the IRS criminal probe of the first son and is likely to be a key witness...

The IRS on Thursday announced higher inflation adjustments for the 2024 tax year, potentially giving Americans a chance to increase their take-home pay next year. The higher limits for the federal income tax bracket and standard deductions are intended to avoid a phenomenon known as "bracket creep," which happens when taxpayers are pushed into higher-income brackets even though their purchasing power is essentially unchanged due to high inflation. The IRS makes such adjustments annually, but in times of inflation, the increases are more significant and impactful for taxpayers. This year, the tax brackets are shifting higher by about 5.4%. The...

The US House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La) passed a stand-alone $14.3 billion bill to aid Israel in its fight against Hamas terror. The 226-196 tally in favor included 12 Democrats. President Biden has said he will veto the bill "because it doesn't included the $61 billion we want for the war in Ukraine or any aid for Gaza. Further, the funding is from money previously earmarked for enhanced IRS enforcement of tax collections." Johnson argued that "it is unnecessary to complicate the issue by attaching it to a much bigger amount desired for continuing...

All but 12 House Democrats voted against Johnson’s $14.3 billion aid proposal Thursday night, with most citing the Speaker’s decision to include cuts in equal amounts to IRS funding. The legislation is also opposed by leaders of both parties in the Senate, who want a broader package including aid to Ukraine, leaving the fate of the Israel funds in question amid escalating hostilities in Gaza almost a month after Hamas’s terrorist attacks killed more than 1,400 people. Heading into the weekend, Johnson’s Democratic critics remained furious with the decision to combine the aid to Israel — an issue that has...

The House of Representatives approved sending $14.3 billion in federal aid dollars to Israel in a 226 to 196 vote on Thursday, with 12 Democrats joining Republicans to pass it. Under the bill brought by House Republicans, that funding will be reallocated from money that was meant for the IRS in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Just two Republicans voted against the bill — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Among the Democrats who voted in favor of it are Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Jared Golden, D-Maine, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., and Lois Frankel, D-Fla....

Quick: somebody call the Woke Speech Police! When's the last time you heard Joe Scarborough—or any liberal-media type—speak of "illegal immigrants?" Scarborough surely knows that the approved woke terms are "migrants" or "undocumented persons." But so desperate is Scarborough to trash and scaremonger Speaker Mike Johnson's legislative proposal to fund Israel without a laundry list of other spending items, that on today's Morning Joe, he was willing to violate the woke speech code. Scarborough claimed that Johnson's proposal would appeal to "illegal immigrants," in addition to a host of other reprobates: "anti-Semites, tax-cheat billionaires, and Vladimir Putin!" Get the rest...

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel faced a grilling by lawmakers on Capitol Hill this past week, where he hinted that there's a chance that the agency will—contrary to its repeated pledges—increase tax audits of Americans earning under $400,000.The question of whether the IRS will use some of the $80 billion or so funding boost to increase tax enforcement of people making less than $400,000 has been a contentious issue.IRS and Treasury Department officials have pledged not to increase audit rates for this group of Americans, while Republicans and others have argued that this pledge is either false or wishful thinking.Treasury Secretary...

Do you remember all of those times that the Democrats wanted metric buttloads more money for the IRS (along with all of the guns and ammunition) but they assured you little people that you had nothing to worry about because all of these resources would be focused on a couple of hundred billionaires? Yeah… good times. Well, you can toss that story out the window along with much else that the government has “assured” us of. The latest tales from the adventures of the IRS coming out of the investigations of the House Judiciary Committee are simply alarming and they...

House Republicans on Monday introduced a plan to provide $14.3 billion in aid to Israel by cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service, setting up a showdown with Democrats who control the Senate. In one of the first major policy actions under new House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republicans unveiled a standalone supplemental spending bill only for Israel, despite Democratic President Joe Biden's request for a $106 billion package that would include aid for Israel, Ukraine and border security. Johnson, who voted against aid for Ukraine before he was elected House speaker last week, had said he wanted aid to Israel...

When the IRS visited my home, Jim Jordan actually did something about it. Why couldn't I call a Democrat? A new report about IRS home visits has just been released by the House Weaponization of Government Committee, chaired by Ohio congressman Jim Jordan. It outlines disturbing issues, including confirmation that IRS agents making home visits may come without warning, using aliases, and without informing local enforcement agencies of their presence. One of the cases outlined is my own. My home was visited by the IRS while I was testifying before Jordan’s Committee about the Twitter Files on March 9th. Sincere...

For two years, the cryptocurrency world has been waiting to see how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Put simply, this law established new reporting requirements that risked setting a de facto ban on cryptocurrency mining and exposing millions of Americans to new felony crimes. The good news is that the IRS’s nearly 300-page proposal is not quite as bad as it could have been under the law. However, that is far from saying it is good policy. As citizens, companies, and consultants finish crafting their comment letters ahead of the October 30...