If you have not filed your personal income tax form (1040), generally, you should get the tax form filed ASAP without consideration for the yet to be assessed penalties.

Then exercise patience.

Wait for the IRS to assess the penalty and then send a reasonable cause explanation to the address indicated on the notice from the IRS. This way you mitigate all sorts of procedural kerfuffles. Read More

Mortgage insurance in the simplest of terms is the backup plan for a lender. In the unfortunate event that the borrower is unable to repay the loan, the lender can cash in the mortgage premium and recover the losses. However, there is more to it than what meets the eye. Here are some more details of this rather intriguing insurance and why you should opt for it.

What Is It?

Statistics reveal that most home buyers pay less than 20% of the entire property cost as up front or commonly known as down payment. Read More

Well, it would be a bit of a stretch to say that most of us don’t want to pay taxes. However, who wouldn’t take a tax deduction if it is available? For all those individuals who are looking out for different ways by which they can reduce their tax liability, here is one effective method of doing so. You can include your Medicare premiums and even dental expenses in tax filing for better deductions. Sure, there are some prerequisites and details that one must consider and they are below.

Deducting Medicare Premiums Read More

John Dundon

Without a doubt one of the best ways for us middle-class folks to reduce our income tax burden is to donate charitably with intent. Most of my clients find themselves pleasantly surprised at the tax benefits received when they go through the exercise of donating gently used household items to charity.

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MileIQ

A write-off, or a tax deduction, can be quite useful for taxpayers of all kinds. It’s particularly handy for those who are self-employed, including small business owners. How does a write-off work? Let’s go over what it is, as well as some tips on how to lower your taxable income.

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John Stancil

You have decided to take the plunge and become a driver for Uber, Lyft or some other rideshare program. Congratulations! You are now a small business owner and your tax return just got more complicated. The income you earn from Uber is taxable and must be reported on Schedule C of your 1040. However, you may deduct expenses incurred in earning this income.

In January, you should receive a Form 1099-MISC from Uber or whatever company you drive for. The amount should be Read More

Annette Nellen

Who remembers when the IRS mailed a packet with blank tax forms and instructions AND your Social Security number printed on your mailing label?  Several years ago the IRS reduced mailings such as when they could tell the taxpayer prepared their return with software the year before and for the past few years don’t mail forms.  They do still print them to pick up at IRS service locations. All of the forms, instructions and publications can be read or printed from the IRS website. Read More

Annette Nellen

Transparency as a principle of good tax policy means taxpayers should understand taxes and how they apply to them. Despite lots of data on a filer’s Form 1040, the one number people focus on is the amount due or refund. Clearly the better number is total federal income tax liability. And better yet, people should also Read More

David Green

The Affordable Care Act requires you and each member of your family to have minimum essential coverage, qualify for an insurance coverage exemption, or make an individual shared responsibility payment for months without coverage or an exemption when you file your federal income tax return.You, your spouse or your dependents may be eligible to claim an exemption Read More

Amended Returns

Debra Thompson

Oops! You’ve discovered an error after your tax return has been filed. What should you do? You may need to amend your return.

The IRS usually corrects math errors or requests missing forms (such as W-2s) or schedules. In these instances, do not amend your return. However, do file an amended return if any of the following were reported incorrectly: Read More

Several federal bills enacted in 2015 included tax changes. One of these was P.L. 114-41 (7/31/15), the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act. Given the title, we might think that any tax change involved transportation, such as the gasoline excise tax. Wrong! This bill does not increase the gasoline excise tax. Its main purpose is to transfer money from the general fund to the Highway Trust Fund because our gasoline excise tax of 18.4 cents per gallon is insufficient to fund the HTF (and more fuel efficient cars means we buy less gas each year).  [I’ve blogged on this a few times – here, for example.]

One of the tax change in P.L. 114-41 is to change due dates of certain returns, starting mostly for the 2016 tax year. The purpose is improved administration of our tax system. For example, one change is to move the due date for a Read More

Tax Court Did Not Consider To Be A Valid Return

In Reifler, TC Memo 2015-199TC Memo 2015-199, the Tax Court recently held that a joint return not signed by the wife was not a valid return and, as a result, imposed the failure-to-file penalty. In so doing, it rejected the taxpayer’s arguments that the return was valid either because it substantially complied with the valid return rules or because the wife intended to file a joint return and tacitly consented to the filing of a joint return.

Signatures on a tax return not only verify that a return has indeed been filed by the person indicated on the front page of a Form 1040 but also certify that all the statements in the tax return are made under penalty of perjury and are true, correct, and complete to the best of Read More