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Don't Mess With Taxes

Translating taxes into money-saving English

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Don't Mess With Taxes Privacy Policy

Privacy key on computer keyboard_Photo by Richard Patterson via Flickr
Photo by Richard Patterson via Flickr

As noted on the ol' blog's Table of Contents page, I follow my own privacy policy when it comes to interactions with and information provided by readers. You can find details on that by clicking over to the ToC and scrolling down to the section titled, in red, Privacy Policy.

The Cliff Notes version is I don't collect and definitely don't share any data that readers give to me, either via email or RSS subscriptions, comments on blog posts or email.

That said, Don't Mess With Taxes is hosted on Typepad, a blogging service owned by Endurance International Group.

As such, your visits to Don't Mess With Taxes, either via my Typepad subdomain or directly at Don't Mess With Taxes, is governed by Endurance's privacy policy.

That privacy policy, as updated Dec. 21, 2019, includes the follow.

Information Collected From You
We obtain the following information about you as described below. We collect this data for the purposes described under How We Use Your Information.

Information you voluntarily provide to us
We collect the following information from you when you provide it to us:

  • Information you provide prior to any registration process, such as your email when you provide it to us;
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  • Information you provide, when you call or email us (for support or otherwise) or when you use Typepad/Endurance products or services; and
  • Payment information, including credit card data that you provide to Typepad/Endurance (by way of associated partners, customers or other services or otherwise) when you make a purchase via such sites or services.

Information we collect about your usage and devices
We collect data relating to your online activity on our websites, including the following:

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Any collected data is stored in a variety of places within the Typepad/Endurance infrastructure, including system log files, back end databases and analytics systems.

Information We Aquire From Social Media
Typepad/Endurance collects information from third party social networking sites, including information that they provide to us if you use your credentials at such social networking sites to log into some of our Services (such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign-up form).

The information you allow Typepad/Endurance to access varies by social networking site, and depends on the level of privacy settings you have in place at the social networking site. You can control and find out more about these privacy settings at the applicable social networking site.

Information We Aquire From Other Sources
Typepad/Endurance also collects the following information from other sources:

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  • Information you consent to us receiving from third parties.

We also collect information that you may provide during your telephone conversations with us, which we may monitor or record.

We may combine any information we collect about you with other information we have about you to help us update, expand and analyze our records, identify new customers, and provide products and services that may be of interest to you. If you provide us personal information about others, or if others give us your information, we will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us.

How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect, both on its own and combined with any other information we collect about you, for the following business and commercial purposes:

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  • To communicate with you;
  • To target current or prospective customers with Typepad/Endurance products or services through online advertisements served on third-party sites by third-party vendors, such as Google (subject to your consent where required by applicable law);
  • To assist us in offering you a personalized experience or otherwise tailor Typepad/Endurance services to you; and
  • As otherwise described in this privacy notice.

We also use the information we receive to produce reports on trends and statistics, such as mobile search trends, email open rates by industry, campaign best practices or the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, our websites or evaluated or purchased our products or services.

Typepad/Endurance also records telephone conversations for quality control purposes, to train employees and for the companies' own protection.

Sharing of Information
We will only share certain personal information with:

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Further information about the third parties with whom Typepad/Endurance share personal information is available here.

When we share your personal information with certain third-party partners, including marketing and advertising partners, that information includes your name, email address and other information enabling partners to:

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Typepad/Endurance partners may use cookies and similar technologies in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests.

When you leave comments on Don't Mess With Taxes, the data shown in the comments form, including your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection, is collected. This also is used by Google Analytics to determine data on blog readership.

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you have visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking and monitor your interaction with their content that is shared on Don't Mess With Taxes. This could include tracking your interaction with the embedded content.

If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising click here, or if you are located in the European Union, click here. Please note you will continue to receive generic ads.

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Typepad/Endurance partners are prohibited from using your contact information for any purpose beyond those set forth above without your consent. Further information about certain partners we share personal information with is available here.

Additional information and details about Don't Mess With Taxes/Typepad/Endurance's full privacy policy.

Thank you for reading and for your trust in me and the ol' blog regarding your data and privacy.

Today's Tax Tip

  • April 15 is still due date for 1Q 2021 estimated tax payment — If you must pay estimated taxes on earnings that aren't subject to payroll withholding, the first deadline for the 2021 tax year is Thursday, April 15. Even though Tax Day this year has been pushed to May 17, other tax due dates — including the first quarter's 1040-ES — remain on the usual mid-April schedule. A bill to align estimated tax payments this year to the May change is still pending, but it looks like Congress won't act in time to change it. (April 12, 2021)

  • Tax Tip; click pencil for all tax tip links

  • The 2021 Tax Tips offer ways to file your annual return, along with post-filing advice, important tax news and, of course, ways to cut your current tax year bill. You'll find the monthly assemblages on their own respective pages: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. While we're waiting for the 2021 calendar pages to flip and fill up with timely tax tidbits, check out 2020 (and earlier) tax years' advice.

COVID-19 & Taxes

  • COVID-19
    Coronavirus has wreaked havoc
    on the 2020 tax season.
    These three Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes pages have details:
    March-July 2020,
    August-December 2020, and
    January-… 2021

All About Kay

  • OK, some about Kay
    Open sign
    Kay Bell — Native Texan (the blog title totally makes sense now, right?). Professional journalist. Tax geek.

My Other Accounts

Sponsored Content

Tick ... Tick ... Tick

  • Tax Season 2021 is here!
    Happy New Tax Year! Are you ready to file your 2020 tax return? Me neither. With all the delays last year due to COVID-19, it seems like that prior tax season just finished. But time and taxes wait for no taxpayer … unless we're still dealing with a global pandemic. Yep, COVID-19 is still hanging on, so the Internal Revenue Service, which started 2021 by delivering more coronavirus economic relief payments, says it's once again giving taxpayers (and the agency itself) more time to deal with 2020 returns. Tax Day 2021 has been moved from April 15 to May 17. The monthly tips and reminders a little further down this column should help us focus on our now-delayed filing and other tax moves and hopefully make things go a bit more smoothly. Also keep an eye on the countdown clock just below. It will help us keep track of how much more time we now have until Tax Day on May 17, just in case some of us want to put things off until the final hours. .
    Note: I'm in the Central Time Zone, so adjust accordingly for where you live.


Time for Tax Tasks


  • monthly tax moves

  • No April Fooling
    around this year, please.
    COVID-19 is hanging on and we definitely are not in the mood.

    No April Fool's Day 2020


    I know, some folks like the 4/1 jokes, especially since April usually is a serious tax month. But with the persistent pandemic, even with more of us getting vaccines, things still are truly life and death. The U.S. tax world, like the rest of the literal planet, continues to deal with the changes this virus has wrought.

    When it comes to taxes, one of the major COVID-19 changes is, once again, a delay of Tax Day. It's not April 15 this year. The IRS moved it to May 17.
    But other tax tasks remain, including an important April one, so let's get to this month's tax moves.

    April 1: Another April change is a holdover from last year, when required minimum distributions (RMDs) were waived. No 2020 RMDs meant none were pushed back to this April 1.
    But get ready, these mandated withdrawals from tax-deferred retirement accounts are back for 2021. Note, though, that the RMD trigger age now is 72 instead of 70½.

    April 6: Looking for tax help? During a normal April, it would be way too deep into the filing season to find a tax preparer. That's likely still true, even with more than a month left in this filing season. But some tax preparers have finished up with early filers, so you might be able to find a tax pro willing to take on new clients.

    If you're looking for free help and are older or don't make a ton of money, check into Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs in your area. These IRS-trained volunteers are working around COVID-19 limitations to help eligible taxpayers fill out and file returns, all at no- or low-cost.

    And, of course, there's Free File, the online no-cost tax preparation and e-filing partnership between the IRS and Free File Alliance.

    IRS Free File; click image for details

    The official Free File site at IRS.gov this season offers nine participating tax software options if your adjusted gross income is $72,000 or less, regardless of filing status.

    April 12: Coronavirus vaccines are rolling out, albeit slowly in some places (yes, looking at you Texas), and some pandemic precautions are being lifted. That means some restaurants are opening for a limited number of diners. Other eateries are continuing with curbside pickup meals and deliveries. Whether you're able to enjoy table service or still relying on food brought to your house, remember to tip your server or delivery person.

    restaurant check tip iStock
    If a tip isn't included in your food delivery charge, click the image above to calculate how much to tip the person who brought it to you.

    As for servers who are still on the job, remember that your tips are taxable income. If you at least $20 in job-related gratuities in March, you need to account for them today by using Form 4070 to report your tips today to your employer.

    April 15: Your 2020 tax year return and any payment if you owe tax aren't due today, but 4/15 is still the deadline for the first quarter of 2021 estimated taxes.

    April 20: You filed your 2020 return early, in part to get the tax refund you're due, as well as to get all your COVID economic impact payments, including the amount you claimed on your Form 1040 as the Recovery Rebate Tax Credit. So where's your money? You can use the IRS' online Where's My Refund? tracker for that amount or the agency's Get My Payment search tool to find out the status of that money.

    April 25: The 93rd Academy Awards will be presented tonight. I'll be watching because I love movies and also because there's a tax connection. Many of this year's nominees, like always, were made using state tax credits, exemptions, rebates and/or grants.

    April 30: In filling out your return, you realized you could get a tax break by making a 2020 tax year contribution to your traditional IRA. Good news. The May 17 deadline also applies to this retirement saving and tax cutting opportunity. The new May Tax Day also is the new deadline to put that prior-tax-year money into a Roth IRA, health savings account (HSA), Archer Medical Savings Accounts (Archer MSAs), and Coverdell education savings accounts (Coverdell ESAs). Start looking now at where to get the cash to put into any of these accounts that affect your tax situation (and savings!).

    Small Business Tax Calendar: Important filing, deposit and record keeping dates throughout the year that your company needs to know. You can get more tax calendar information at the IRS' online calendar page and view the full year's important business and individual tax dates in IRS Pub. 509.

State Tax Help

  • Don't forget your state taxes!
    Forty-three states and D.C. collect personal income taxes. But even if you live in of the seven states without an income levy, you still face other state (and local) taxes.

    State Tax Departments provides links to your state's Web page. The companion page, Tax Tidbits, is the compilation of blurbs about each state's tax laws. And for more state tax news, check out all our state tax bloggings.

Tax Forms

  • Tax Forms
    Thanks to our increased use of tax preparers and computer software, many of us don't see our tax forms until we sign and file them. But knowing what's on these documents, either in paper or digital form, and why the IRS wants it is key to understanding our tax system. And knowledge definitely is power, especially when it comes to tax savings. Find this valuable information in the ol' blog's special Tax Forms Fiesta! page.

What are you looking for?

  • Looking for something in particular? Start with the Table of Contents.
    Or check out the Archives, where you can review posts by month and category. Or enter specific keywords in the box below to search
    Don't Mess With Taxes.

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  • You can read more
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  • Kay Bell helps you build
    a solid tax foundation in
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    Kay Bell breaks down taxes and
    estate planning for millennials in
    "Future Millionaires' Guidebook"



    A collection of Kay Bell stories
    is included in
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    How to Keep More
    of What You Win"




  • Tax Reading Room

    You also might enjoy these other tax tips from some of my tax-writing colleagues:




  • Don't Mess With Taxes
    is an Amazon Affiliate.
    If you click on the product links above and/or buy the items,
    I will be compensated.

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ...

  • Numbers
    Taxes are all about the numbers.
    Check out these (mostly) weekly
    By the Numbers figures.

Kudos Et Cetera

  • Association for Women Clarion Award Winner
    National Association
    for Women in Communications

    Winner, Best Personal Blog
    2012, 2014 & 2017

  • Plutus Award Winner
    Plutus Financial Bloggers Awards
    Celebrating the Best
    in Personal Finance

    Winner, Best Tax Blog
    2011 and 2013
    Lifetime Achievement Nominee 2020


I gotta tell ya ...

  • AKA Disclaimer:
    I am a professional journalist who has been covering tax issues since 1999.
    I am not a professional tax preparer.
    The content on Don't Mess With Taxes is my personal opinion based on my study and understanding of tax laws, policies and regulations. It is provided for your private, noncommercial, educational and informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation of any specific tax action(s) you should or should not take. Similarly, mentions of products or services are not endorsements. In other words, my ramblings on the ol' blog are free advice and you know what they say about getting what you pay for. That's why when it comes to filing your taxes, I urge you to get additional, professional, paid-for guidance from an accountant, Enrolled Agent or other qualified tax preparer who is familiar with your individual tax circumstances.

©©©©© & ®®®®®

  • Don't Mess With Taxes®
    is a registered trademark
    of S. Kay Bell.

    All content on this site is
    © 2005-2021 S. Kay Bell
    dba Write Here, a division of
    SKB Editorial Services, LLC

  • And a bit of housekeeping.
  • Note 1: Some of the links on this site
    are affiliate links. That means that
    if you click through from
    a Don't Mess With Taxes link
    and then buy the product,
    I receive a commission.

    Note 2: Links to outside content
    might become inactive due to changes
    at the copy's originating website.
    If you discover dead links, please e-mail me the details. Thanks.

    Note 3: The banner art for the ol' blog
    is courtesy Pictures of Money
    via Flickr Creative Commons.

Privacy Policy

  • Wondering what happens to your information once you subscribe? Don't worry. Don't Mess With Taxes respects your wish not to be a mere data source. Check the ol' blog's privacy policy at the Table of Contents page, as well as on the separate Privacy Policy page.
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Tell it to the Hill


  • While it's easy to rail at the IRS, for the most part we can thank — or blame — our tax laws on Congress and the White House. So if you have an issue with tax legislation or want a tax bill passed, use the federal legislator locator above to find just who on Capitol Hill should hear your concerns. And for matters tax or otherwise closer to home, you can find info on your state and local elected officials at USA Gov.

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