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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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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 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

  • Child Tax Credit online filing portal is open again — An online portal that allowed nonfilers to claim Advance Child Tax Credit amounts is back. These families now can use GetCTC to get the remainder of 2021's enhanced tax break. (May 14, 2022)

  • Tax Tip; click pencil for all tax tip links

  • The 2022 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. Remember, tax tasks and tips don't stop after you file your annual return!

COVID-19 & Taxes

  • COVID-19
    Coronavirus has wreaked havoc
    on the 2020 and 2021 tax seasons.
    These three Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes pages have details:
    March-July 2020,
    August-December 2020,
    January-December 2021, and
    January-… 2022
    You can find medical coronavirus resource links further down this column.

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

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  • *************

Tick ... Tick ... Tick

  • Tax Season 2022 continues!

    Tax Day 2022 is finally over … unless you're one of the millions who have more time to file — looking at you taxpayers abroad and those in major disaster areas — or you got an extension to file your 2021 tax year return. That's fine. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service appreciates some of us spreading out our filings, especially when we and the agency still are dealing with all the complications of COVID-19 and taxes.

    That's why the ol' blog's focus now is on all y'all still working on returns. But I haven't forgotten my organized taxpayer readers, who are already looking for ways to reduce their 2022 tax year bills. Yep, that amount is adding up, but there are moves you can make. The monthly tips and reminders a little further down this column can help everyone, regardless of which tax year you're working on.

    Those on extension should keep a keen eye on the countdown clock below. It will help you track the days tick, tick, ticking off toward that absolutely final fall filing due date of Oct. 17. Yep, it's a few days later this year.
    Note: I'm in the Central Time Zone, so adjust accordingly for where you live.


Time for Tax Tasks


  • monthly tax moves


  • May has arrived!
    That exclamation mark is sincere and deserved. You've got to love a month that starts with a celebration.

    May Pole Dance via GIPHY


    After the May Day dances are done, the commemorative days just keep coming. There are well-known ones, like Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, and Memorial Day, as well as some more obscure ones, like Visit Your Relatives Day, National Smile Day, and my favorite, Eat What You Want Day.

    But even with all these (and more!) celebrations, there's still time to make some money-saving May tax moves. Let's get to it!

    May 1: While May Day isn't a big holiday in the United States, globally the first day of May is a time for celebrating workers' contributions. But that can apply here, too, in connection with some employment-related tax tasks. If you got a big refund or owed more tax than you expected when you filed (or got an extension) last month, today's the perfect time to do paycheck check-up to determine how you should adjust your withholding.

    May 5: ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

    Feliz Cinco de Mayo

    Fiestas are back this year, as more of us have been taken advantage of COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters. Still, be careful out there celebrating this Mexican holiday (and no, it's NOT Mexican Independence Day) that tends to spur more festivities here north of the border. Party responsibly, both when it come to the lingering pandemic and imbibing your favorite adult beverage, likely a margarita, which included the cost of state and federal alcohol taxes. Your state tax collector also will raise a glass to your fiscal contribution, since during the pandemic, sin taxes were a revenue bright spot for many states.

    May 8: Happy Mother's Day!

    Happy Mother's Day

    If you're just this year making up for pandemic paused family visits, give your mom a longer hug on her special day. Love, flowers, and the best of health and happiness to every mother, from the new ones just discovering the joys, tax and otherwise, of new parenthood to those gracefully maneuvering their Golden Years while getting some tax-advantaged help from their families.

    May 10: Eateries are still recovering from the challenges of operating during a national health crisis. Restaurants closed, then opened, then closed again. Others relied on and have stuck with take-out and deliveries. Whether you're dining in or still getting 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 now are back on the job, remember that your tips are taxable income. If you worked at least some of March at a job where you got gratuities, you need to account for them today if they came to at least $20 last month. Use Form 4070 to report your tips today to your employer.

    May 16: Before the seasonal shift into summer, take care of spring tax cleaning. Give away clothing and household goods you no longer use. Your philanthropy could provide you a charitable tax deduction.

    May 23: Kick spring cleaning up a notch. Go beyond housekeeping and house clearing and make those home repairs you've been putting off. Many home improvements, including landscaping, could pay off in by increasing your home's basis, which means your profit for tax purposes will be smaller and stay under the amount that's tax-free when you eventually sell your home.

    May 27: If you're heading out early for the long Memorial Day weekend that traditionally kicks off summer, be sure to plan for added costs, like the price of getting to your holiday destination. Most of us will hit the highways, so even though gasoline prices have come down a bit, they still will take a bite of our travel budgets. Sorry, it's not enough to get Congress to create a federal gas tax holiday. And if you're renting your home to incoming tourists, be sure to pay the state and/or local taxes added to short-term home rentals.

    May 30: As you honor military personnel this Memorial Day who made the ultimate sacrifice, don't forget about their families. There are some tax considerations offered survivors of lost soldiers, sailors, and air crew.

    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 Talking Tax Forms 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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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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    A collection of Kay Bell stories
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Kudos Et Cetera

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    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
    © 2005-2022 S. Kay Bell
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  • And a bit of housekeeping.
  • Note 1: Some of the links on this site
    are affiliate links. That means that
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COVID-19 Resources

  • COVID-19
    Need help finding a coronavirus vaccine in the United States?
    Call 1-800-232-0233
    or TTY 1-888-720-7489.
    More information and resources at:
    CDC Vaccines
    CDC Booster Shots
    HHS Combat COVID
    USA.Gov COVID Info

May 2022

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Tell it to the Hill

  • DMWT Politics Posts
  • 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, you need to let your federal legislators and the White House occupant know of your concerns. You can find out who in Washington, D.C., to contact (and how), as well as get information on your local lawmakers for matters, tax or otherwise, closer to home, at USA Gov.

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