Summertime, despite what the song says, is not easy if you are the target of a tax scam. And that's increasingly likely this season, says the Internal Revenue Service. The tax agency is urging people to be on the lookout for a summer surge of tax scams. Identity thieves are sending a barrage of email and text messages promising tax refunds or offers to help fix tax problems. Neither the good (possible cash back from Uncle Sam) nor the bad (tax troubles) exist. They are just the latest ploys, targeting individual and business taxpayers, that crooks are using to try... Read more →
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And if that's not enough to get what's owed, Oregon and other states' child support officials get the U.S. Treasury's assistance in collecting those delinquent family financial payments. Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images It's a given that raising children is an expensive endeavor. When parents split up, that financial burden is shared. That continues, ideally, even when couples split. In those cases, one parent often is held legally responsible for providing funds to the other who has main custody of the youngsters. The payments typically last until the children are legal adults. When the paying parent is delinquent on... Read more →
Photo by Olga DeLawrence on Unsplash If you didn't file a 2019 tax return and missed out on that tax year's refund, you have less than a week to collect your money. You must file that old tax return, which originally was due on July 15, 2020, to account for COVID-19 pandemic delays that year, by July 17. That's next Monday. The Internal Revenue Service announced this fast-approaching deadline, and I blogged about it, back in April. You can find details in that post, July 17, 2023, is deadline to claim $1.5 billion in 2019 tax year refunds. But since... Read more →
Hello, July! Yeah, I know my welcome to the first full month of summer is a bit late. But admit it. You don't really focus on the month either until after you wrap up July 4th celebrations. Since Independence Day this year fell on Tuesday, that meant an extra-long holiday weekend for lots of us. But the fireworks are over and, sadly, we'll never be independent of taxes. So it's back to work this first week of July, and back to making tax moves that can at least keep a few more dollars out of Uncle Sam's clutches. Here are... Read more →
Unscrupulous tax return preparers once again made the Internal Revenue Service's annual Dirty Dozen scam list. That's not a surprise. The IRS and reputable tax community members are constantly battling shady tax pros and the schemes they use to lure taxpayers to use their so-called services. While the tax world is divided in how to best combat these crooks and scams, the IRS has long argued for tighter tax professional regulation. President Joe Biden also has expressed support for more tax pro oversight. And this month, members of Congress introduced the latest bicameral effort to protect taxpayers from dishonest tax... Read more →
Photo by Karolina Grabowska Nearly 1.5 million people across the United States are due tax refunds they didn't claim in 2020 by filing a 2019 tax year return. They can get that money, which totals almost $1.5 billion, by filing that old return. Even better, they don't have to mess with the old filing by this year's April 18 filing deadline. Instead, they get until July 17 to file for their 2019 refunds. 3-year window's opening and closing: Tax law gives taxpayers three years to file a return and collect the associated refund. The three-year filing period is from the... Read more →
Residents in 21 states got some good news from the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year. In 2022, they received general welfare, disaster, or stimulus payments from their state officials. These generally were referred to as refunds. Basic state tax refunds in some instances are taxable at the federal level. But the IRS announced on Feb. 10 that in most cases these special 2022 state payments were not. The affected taxpayers live in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia.... Read more →
Through March 10, the Internal Revenue Service had issued more than 49 million refunds, which came to a total of $146.2 billion. If you're still waiting on your part of that, you're probably getting a bit frustrated. I get it. You want your cash. At the very least, you want answers as to why it's taking so long for your tax refund to show up in your mailbox or bank account. That frustration is why lots of folks every filing season fall for myths, misconceptions, and just plain wrong information they think will help speed up the delivery of their... Read more →
via GIPHY Where's your tax refund? Use the IRS' online tracker to find out The first look at 2023 tax filing data revealed that while returns were coming in at a brisker pace than last year, the average tax refund amount was smaller. That's still true, three weeks into the season. The average refund amount issued for the week ending Feb. 17 is less than at the same period in 2022. Again. However, that comparatively smaller refund so far this year actually is a decent amount, specifically $3,140. I haven't filed yet, so I don't know what my refund will... Read more →
When it comes to paycheck tax withholding, you want to get it just right to avoid a bear of a tax problem. (Goldilocks caught in Baby Bear's bed drawing by Leonard Leslie Brooke via Wikipedia Commons) Almost 29 million taxpayers have filed returns so far this 2023 tax season. Most early filers are tax refund recipients. Those of us who tend to owe send our 1040s to the IRSs closer to the April deadline, which is on the 18th this year. Both filing tendencies underscore a need to get tax withholding right. Overwithholding costs: IRS data show that most taxpayers,... Read more →
That's all?!? (Photo by Karolina Grabowska) As we hit mid-February, more tax refunds will start going out. The Internal Revenue Service has been waiting, per 2015's Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes, or PATH, Act, to issue refunds on returns where filers claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). The mandated delay was designed to give the IRS more time to catch fraudulent refunds based on these two popular tax credits. The IRS expects most EITC and/or ACTC related refunds to be available in taxpayer bank accounts or on debit cards by Feb. 28... Read more →
Image via California Franchise Tax Board Individuals who got special tax or inflation relief payments from their states last year won't have to worry about handing over a portion to the U.S. Treasury. The Internal Revenue Service announced late Friday, Feb. 10, afternoon, that, "in the interest of sound tax administration and other factors," recipients of the payments won't have to report the amounts on their 2022 tax returns that are now being filed. Disaster and general welfare exemptions: The IRS said that it will not challenge the taxability of payments related to general welfare and disaster relief. This means... Read more →
It's never fun having to re-do your taxes. But if it means you'll get a refund, or a larger amount than with your original filing, it's worth it. And now amended filers can have that refund amount sent straight to a financial account. The Internal Revenue Service announced today that people who e-file a Form 1040-X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, now will be able to select direct deposit as the money's delivery method. More X filing going electronic: The IRS began accepting e-filed 1040-X forms in 2020. Most tax software programs have added the amended filing option to... Read more →
Photo by Brett Sayles Tax refunds are one of the main ways the Internal Revenue Service uses to encourage more of us taxpayers to go digital. For years, the IRS has said that if you e-file your tax return and include bank information, your refund can be directly deposited in less than 21 days. There are, of course, a few caveats connected to this promise of a three-week refund turnaround. First, your return must not have any iffy entries that prompt Uncle Sam's tax collector to take a closer look, and possibly send out follow-up communications. Second, there isn't a... Read more →
The Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, is one of the most beneficial tax breaks for lower- and moderate-income workers. It's also one of the most under-claimed. The reasons are many, starting with its complexity. You have to work to be able to claim the EITC. But if you make too much money, you're ineligible. Your marital status comes in the calculation of the final credit, as does the size of your family. And many single people ignore the EITC because they think it's only available to filers with dependent children. "This is an extremely important tax credit that helps... Read more →
Photo by Dewang Gupta on Unsplash In 2019, the Internal Revenue Service received nearly 156 million tax returns. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the number of 1040s filed hit 169.7 million. The increase continued in 2021 with the IRS receiving 169.1 million returns, and into 2022, when 164.3 returns were sent to the tax agency. The main reason for the 2020-2022 filing spikes was the coronavirus-related financial help — economic impact payments and increased advance Child Tax Credit amounts — that the IRS was tasked with delivering. Many, OK most, of those millions who hadn't filed before 2020... Read more →
Photo by Kay Bell The Internal Revenue Service won't start processing 2022 tax year returns until Jan. 23, but you can file before then. A lot of folks are doing just that. The most common and obvious motive for filing early is to get the refund you're expecting. But there are some other reasons you might want to get your return to the IRS as soon as possible. 1. To beat tax ID thieves to the punch. The IRS and its Security Summit partners have made good progress in recent years in reducing tax identity theft and refund fraud. One... Read more →
Unemployment benefits can be a godsend when you lose your job. They also can be a god-awful problem at tax time. That money you get to help tide you over until you find another job is taxable income. In certain situations, however, lawmakers have provided unemployment compensation, or UC (and yes, that's its official name, so the compensation moniker explains the taxing), have exempted some of the government money from federal tax. COVID UC exemption: That was the case during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extraordinary circumstances of so many people losing their jobs at the same time... Read more →
Money troubles lead some taxpayers to refund anticipation loans. If you're not careful, it could make finances worse. When the Internal Revenue Service officially opens the 2023 tax filing season, which is expected to be at near the end of the month (it was Jan. 24 last year), it will process e-filed 1040s first. Those returns' electronic data automatically goes into the IRS processing system. That means, says the agency, most of those early filers should get their refunds within 21 days. But what if you just can't wait three weeks for the tax cash? Or you know your refund... Read more →
Photo by Karolina Grabowska The Internal Revenue Service is making progress on its documents backlog, which started in 2020 with COVID-19 pandemic office closures and snowballed. But it's not there yet. That's distressing news for taxpayers and their tax pros who've been waiting for accounts to be brought up to date. But there's a tiny silver lining for those whose refunds are among the still-stalled IRS stack. Inflation has pushed up the interest rate that the IRS will pay on refunds that take longer than 45 days to process and issue. More interest on overdue refunds: IRS interest rates are... Read more →