If you experienced damages and losses as a result of Hurricane Irene, you may be able to take tax deductions at tax time to help offset the expense. In general, people can claim casualty losses, like damages or losses from hurricanes, floods, fire, earthquakes or volcanoes on their federal income tax returns – provided they ... Read More
Tax News
2011 California Tax Amnesty Program: 8/1/11-10/31/11
For as long as there have been taxes, there have been people who try to avoid paying them, which is certainly the case in California. However, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) has been steadily improving its technology and reporting capabilities, so it is getting easier than ever for them to locate taxpayers who avoid or ... Read More
California Sales Tax to be Collected by Amazon, Overstock, Others
A new California tax collection requirement mandates that large out-of-state retailers, such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com, collect sales taxes on all online purchases made by customers in the state of California. The new legislation was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last week and went into effect on Friday, July 1, 2011, ... Read More
IRS Interest Rates Q3 2011: Rates for Overpayments & Underpayments
The IRS has announced that interest rates for the third quarter of 2011 will remain unchanged from the second quarter’s rates. According to the IRS website, interest rates will be as follows: four (4) percent for overpayments [three (3) percent in the case of a corporation]; four (4) percent for underpayments; six (6) ... Read More
New Marijuana Tax Legislation Proposed by Congress
Businesses which dispense medical marijuana may soon have the same options as other small businesses in regards to business expense deductions. This is due to the recent introduction of bills which would protect access to medicinal marijuana through banking and tax laws. As reported by AccountingToday.com: “The bills were ... Read More
Casey Anthony Hit With Federal Tax Lien Days Before Her Murder Trial
The IRS has filed a $68,520 tax lien against alleged child murderer Casey Anthony for unpaid federal income taxes, interest and penalties from 2008. The 25-year-old is currently on trial in Orlando, FL for the murder of her two-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony. The lien was filed just days prior to opening arguments in the ... Read More
IRS Charging Big Political Donors Back Taxes for Gift Taxes
It is possible that after nearly 30 years of lax enforcement, the IRS may begin taxing individuals who make donations to social welfare groups. These individuals who have not filed gift tax forms when filing tax returns may find themselves owing back taxes for donations made under Section 501(c)4 of the tax code. This ... Read More
Roni Deutch "Tax Lady" Shut Down After Complaints
Months after being sued by California Attorney General for $34 million, Roni Deutch has closed her law firm and surrendered her license. The "Tax Lady" has made it into the news many times since last August when the court prohibited Deutch from destroying evidence and she proceeded to shred millions of pages of documents at her ... Read More
Kelly Osbourne Tax Problem: Owes $35K in Back Taxes
Kelly Osbourne is yet another "Dancing With the Stars" celebrity to have a tax problem. Kelly is best known for being the daughter of Ozzy Osbourne and became famous after appearing on the reality series, "The Osbournes". After the reality series she went on to singing, acting, fashion, writing and many other things that likely ... Read More
IRS Gives Taxpayers With Unreported Offshore Assets Until August 2011
The Internal Revenue service, or the IRS, recently announced a special voluntary disclosure initiative that was designed to help bring offshore money that should be in the US tax system back. The initiative is a means at giving taxpayers a second chance to disclose income that they have hidden in offshore accounts and bring this ... Read More
IRS Interest Rates Raised Q2 2011 on Late Payments & Underpayments
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be raising interest rates for the second quarter and the new rates will go into effect come April 1, 2011. According to the IRS website, the new rates will be as follows: four (4) percent for overpayments (three (3) percent in the case of a corporation); four (4) percent for tax ... Read More
IRS Eases Up On Taxpayers Who Owe Taxes or Back Taxes
Last Thursday, IRS commissioner Doug Shulman announced a new set of initiatives to help taxpayers struggling to pay their taxes or pay off back taxes in this lackluster economy. Sometimes IRS enforcement actions (e.g. tax lien) can bury the taxpayer further which lessens not only their ability to climb out of the hole they are ... Read More
