Happy New Year! Here are some things that you may want to know for 2012. Tax Preparers: Preparers of Federal Income Tax Returns face a series of new and more stringent requirements and risks. Among other things, all preparers must obtain a Preparer Tax Identification Number “PTIN”. Those preparers that already had a PT...
If it is in writing it must be true, right? If it is written on the internet then it must be true, right, and thus must be spread to inform everyone that you know. I am a skeptic by nature. Accordingly, I take the exact opposite presumption; that just because it is written on the internet does not necessarily mean that it is fals...
When people think of tax laws, most conjure unhappy images. These include costs, risks, uncertainty, hassles and pressure. I expect that this negative image even holds true for those people who have received refunds that exceed the taxes that they paid in from “refundable” tax credits such as Making Work Pay (i.e. they got free m...
Each year, the President of the United States releases his own personal Federal Income Tax Return. I was curious about what those Returns looked like and what they might tell me about the President. I decided to review Barack and Michelle Obama’s 2010 Federal Return and George W. and Laura Bush’s 2007 Federal Return (the last Ret...
Regardless of your political, economic, religious, moral, and social views, everyone understands that the government needs money to function and perform services. If all the Federal government wanted to do was raise money we could pursue a simpler system, such as a flat tax or federal sales tax. Instead we have an income tax system c...
Are you married to an alien? Did you meet your spouse at Area 51 outside Roswell Nevada or maybe had a Close Encounter of the Third Kind? Is your husband from Mars and your wife from Venus? Although not as celestial, you could simply be married to an earthling who is not a U.S. Citizen. If your spouse is not a U.S. Citizen many of th...
White Men Can’t Jump and Wesley Snipes can’t interpret Federal Income Tax laws. Actor, Wesley Snipes, known for his portrayals in Blade, White Men Can’t Jump, Demolition Man and U.S. Marshals is currently in Federal Prison for failing to file Federal Tax Returns. He was convicted on 3 misdemeanors and only narrowly escaped bein...
As we wound our way through 2010, no one knew for sure whether sweeping tax law changes would result from a set of new laws or whether sweeping Tax Law changes would result from the expiration of a set of old laws. Either way, something big was going to happen. On December 17, 2010 the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthoriz...
The tax basis of an asset for Income Tax purposes (“Basis”) is the figure used to determine how much can be depreciated and whether a taxpayer has a gain or loss when they sell that asset. Whether you know it or not, everyone has a Basis in every asset that they own. For non-business assets, taxpayers may not care about their ...
I had planned to continue last month’s discussion regarding informational returns in this November, 2010 FlashPoints. However, I have decided to defer that to next month and, instead, discuss a more time sensitive topic, IRA conversions. A Brief History of IRA’s: The traditional Individual ...
