John McCain and Barack Obama have starkly different philosophies about tax policy - how to raise the revenue needed to support government programs, spur growth and ensure economic fairness.
Consumers fuel the economy and if they're strapped, the thinking goes, better get them some cash to spend.
Delayed tax returns and late tax code changes are among the most serious problems facing taxpayers today, according to taxpayer advocate Nina Olson in an annual report to Congress Wednesday.
DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge sentenced Robert "Tractor" Traylor to three years of probation Friday after the former NBA player and Michigan star admitted to preparing a false tax return that hid the assets of a convicted drug dealer.
A flood of last-minute tax filers swamped Intuit Inc.'s e-filing system early Tuesday, causing long delays for taxpayers trying to check that their electronic returns had been submitted successfully.
It's that annual ritual that Americans love to grouse about, but this year's tax filing season is finally coming to a close.
April 15 is traditionally the last day when U.S. taxpayers can file their tax returns (or appropriate forms) with the federal government without being penalized. Because April 15 falls on a Sunday this year, and the following day, April 16, is Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia, the 2007 deadline is April 17 for most of the country. Use this Extra! to help students understand federal income taxes.
It's virtually guaranteed to happen every year - the IRS gets a slew of tax returns loaded with errors.
Question: I'm considering contributing after-tax dollars to my 401(k), but I'm wondering whether it would be better to put this money in a traditional deductible or Roth IRA. What do you think? - Richard Smarz, Dallas, Texas
Manhattan and the metropolitan area of Stamford/Norwalk, Conn. have the highest paying taxpayers among U.S. counties and cities.
John McCain and Barack Obama have starkly different philosophies about tax policy - how to raise the revenue needed to support government programs, spur growth and ensure economic fairness.
Consumers fuel the economy and if they're strapped, the thinking goes, better get them some cash to spend.
Delayed tax returns and late tax code changes are among the most serious problems facing taxpayers today, according to taxpayer advocate Nina Olson in an annual report to Congress Wednesday.
DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge sentenced Robert "Tractor" Traylor to three years of probation Friday after the former NBA player and Michigan star admitted to preparing a false tax return that hid the assets of a convicted drug dealer.
A flood of last-minute tax filers swamped Intuit Inc.'s e-filing system early Tuesday, causing long delays for taxpayers trying to check that their electronic returns had been submitted successfully.
It's that annual ritual that Americans love to grouse about, but this year's tax filing season is finally coming to a close.
April 15 is traditionally the last day when U.S. taxpayers can file their tax returns (or appropriate forms) with the federal government without being penalized. Because April 15 falls on a Sunday this year, and the following day, April 16, is Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia, the 2007 deadline is April 17 for most of the country. Use this Extra! to help students understand federal income taxes.
It's virtually guaranteed to happen every year - the IRS gets a slew of tax returns loaded with errors.
Question: I'm considering contributing after-tax dollars to my 401(k), but I'm wondering whether it would be better to put this money in a traditional deductible or Roth IRA. What do you think? - Richard Smarz, Dallas, Texas
Manhattan and the metropolitan area of Stamford/Norwalk, Conn. have the highest paying taxpayers among U.S. counties and cities.
Here's yet another way to save for retirement. Starting in 2006, the law will allow employers to offer a new option in 401(k) plans: to contribute after-tax money that will grow tax-free.
With W-2s arriving, many Americans begin thinking about how to spend their tax refund. Nearly half of those polled during last year's tax season -- 47 percent -- said they would spend their refund checks on paying down debt, according to a 2006 survey by the National Retail Federation.
If lawmakers repeal or fix the alternative minimum tax (AMT), taxpayers are likely to foot the bill, even if tax rates aren't raised explicitly.
The Internal Revenue Service confirmed Wednesday it is waiting for taxpayers to claim undeliverable refund checks as soon as they update their addresses.
Which places are low on taxes? Exclusive rankings for FSB.com from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.*
Which places are low on taxes and light on government regulations? Exclusive rankings for FSB.com from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.*
In exclusive rankings for FSB.com from the Small Business \& Entrepreneurship Council\*, we looked for places low on taxes and light on government regulations. These places aren\'t.
A contentious $70 billion tax-cut package awaits only President Bush's signature after the Senate on Thursday passed the measure 54-44, largely along party lines.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - If there's one thing you can count on in tax season it's the throngs of 11th hour procrastinators.
April 15 is traditionally the last day when U.S. taxpayers can file their tax returns (or appropriate forms) with the federal government without being penalized. Because April 15 falls on a Saturday this year, the 2006 deadline is April 17 for most of the country. Use this Extra! to help students understand federal income taxes.
With tax day just a few weeks away, there is no better time to cross your t's and dot your i's.
Just about anyone can set up a shingle and call themselves an accountant. And when tax time approaches, having the right person handling your financial accounts is more important than ever.
Bob Reilly is just a middle-class schoolteacher trying to get by.
Maybe you've managed to ignore the recent spate of tax-reform stories, but that doesn't mean you'll dodge the Alternative Minimum Tax or its higher tax bite.
Starting in 2006, the law will allow employers to offer a new option in 401(k) plans: to contribute after-tax money that will grow tax-free.
When you get your tax refund, the instinctive reaction is, "Hey, free money!" But you know better: A refund means the federal government got to hang on to your dough for a whole year and is now pay...
Even as Congress remained riven over judicial nominations, legislators on Monday took up another impassioned issue and one that seems like a political no-brainer: tax reform for the middle class.
It's that time of year: Tax Time. And if you haven't filed your return by now, you are (hate to say it), pretty strapped for time. The deadline is in two days.
1. Great Expectations This year the IRS expects that more than half of all taxpayers will:
HOW TO HANDLE GAINS, LOSSES AND DIVIDENDS
Starting this year -- and for 2004 and 2005 only, under current law -- you can deduct either your state and local income taxes or sales taxes on your federal return as long as you itemize (and don't fall prey to the AMT).
So it's only February. But with 2004 in the dust, he's on his way...the taxman cometh.
SALEM, Ore. (CNN/Money) - Tax season is officially here.
Richard Hatch, the first winner of hit TV reality show "Survivor," has been charged with filing false tax returns, the office of the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island announced Tuesday.
President Bush has two big ideas about your tax bill.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - With two months left in the year, there's still time to trim your tax bill for 2004, or at least keep it from being unnecessarily or unexpectedly high.
If you're one of the 8.5 million taxpayers who filed for an extension on your 2003 tax return your time is nearly running out.
Three days and counting until the taxman comes knocking on your door. If you haven't filed your tax return just yet, there's still time. But why not avoid waiting on line at the post office to mail your return, when you can do it electronically?
The U.S. economy is in the early stages of another sugar high, fueled by tax cuts, low interest rates and mortgage refinancing.
If you dread doing your taxes, there's good news and bad news.
When economists talk about inflation being under control, they're often ignoring energy prices, which can be wildly volatile.
If you're expecting to enjoy all the benefits of the latest round of federal tax cuts, you may need to think again. For many of us, much of what the government gave with the regular income tax brea...
When Congress pushed through a $350 billion tax package in a mad dash before Memorial Day weekend, it signed off on the third largest tax cut in U.S. history and handed a big political win to Presi...
There will probably come a time in the next few weeks when you'll look at your paycheck, notice that the take-home dollar amount is a little bit higher and the "federal withholding" amount is a lit...
The economy is sputtering. A Republican President vows to cut taxes to get it moving again. Critics say the proposed cuts will leave the rich richer, federal deficits bigger, and the economy worse ...
TAXABLE EVENTS. It seems that everything we do these days triggers one. Still, there is nothing like April 15, the mother of all taxable events, to put your nerves on edge. Thanks to changes enacte...
Over the past two years, our friends on Capitol Hill saw fit to rest on the laurels of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997--which, to their credit, did result in such goodies as the Roth IRA--and refra...
In 2000 a strange new word entered the vocabulary of a generation of investors: loss. For those whose entire investment experience came during the epochal bull market, it has been a scary detour fr...
Q. If I buy an advertised list of foreclosure properties for $49.99, will I get valid information on real homes? CHERYL DACEY ADDRESS WITHHELD
Few things can clear a room full of people faster than the mention of taxes. And with today's bullish economy creating new wealth in the form of soaring Internet IPOs and valuable stock options, ta...
Not all tax mistakes are created equal. There are, for example, the kind that drive the IRS crazy. The revenuers say that nearly eight million 1998 tax returns contained at least one error, some of...
One thing is clear from the last-minute tax-preparation questions I've received: Aging baby-boomers are starting to come into inheritances--big and small--and, having barely mastered the realm of 1...
What would you do if the Internal Revenue Service mailed you an unexpected check for $11,515? If you're like John and Toni Ryerson, who received just such a surprise in July 1996, you'd first try t...
You know the line about how you should never watch legislation or sausages being made? Well, add this past summer's messy Taxpayer Relief Act to the list. With Capitol Hill lawyers pulling all-nigh...
Think you've heard more than enough about this year's maddeningly complex tax law? Think again. Unless you're hip to its devilish details, you may overlook year-end moves that could save you more t...
So what's in it for me? That's the question millions of taxpayers have been asking ever since late July, when Congress passed a $95 billion tax cut. Even after that landmark act, polling showed tha...
THIS MONTH: --Pension lessons from a baseball pro --Websites for fund investors --When it pays to buy cash-value life insurance
Right about now, you're probably feeling some lingering pain from that most dreaded April rite: completing your tax return. Well, cheer up. Although you probably poured a quarter or more of your ha...
With April 15 fast approaching, your mission (should you decide to accept it) is twofold: You want to do everything you can to slash your 1996 taxes, while putting strategies in place to cut your t...
One of the unforeseen and pleasant consequences of the presidential election is that for the first time in a decade, we may see a significant reform of the capital gains tax. President Clinton in l...
Bill Clinton and Bob Dole are happy to tell you how they'd cut your taxes next year. But what about tax year 1996? Don't look to Washington for a lot of help here: Congress and the President haven'...
Oops. you mailed your tax return two months ago and, son of a gun, you just found an unopened year-end statement reporting $400 in dividends at the back of a desk drawer. Or perhaps you suddenly re...
Last summer news reports regularly asserted that Kevin Costner's clunker, Waterworld, was the most expensive movie ever made. In fact, that dubious distinction belongs to Cleopatra, made way back i...
So. You just got the final tally from your tax adviser, and as you settle back with this magazine in one hand, you may be clutching a stiff Scotch in the other. You couldn't write off what? You had...
Few policy proposals put as warm a glow in the hearts of American business leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors as the idea of cutting the tax rates on capital gains. Lower capital gains taxes red...
While Americans are lions at terrifying Congress and the President into clamoring for a tax cut, many are turkeys when faced with a tax IQ test. That's the unavoidable conclusion of a new Money tel...
VOTER FURY LAST NOV. 8--PERHAPS INCLUDING YOUR BALLOT--HAS virtually guaranteed that one way or another Americans will see their federal tax load lighten in 1995. The new Republican leadership in t...
Tax planning is your single best hope of reducing your federal and state income tax bills. You know it. I know it. But do you really do it? (You may keep the answer to yourself.) Undoubtedly, your ...
You know about tax planning: It's what you should do to keep your tax bill as low as possible and what most of us never get around to. A great time to look for tax-cutting moves would be right afte...
PRESIDENT CLINTON and his allies spent a ton of time last year devising ways to make you pay more taxes. Have you spent any planning your defense? If not, listen up. A few last-minute tips may save...
If you're like the hardy 44% of Money subscribers who do their own taxes, you'll get a boost from the advice offered here by Mary L. Sprouse, a Los Angeles tax attorney and author of The Money 1994...
| At long last, the voice of the taxpayer has been heard in state capitols all across the country. ''Voters are in a bad mood, and state officials are reluctant to risk their wrath by raising taxes...
As you organize your 1993 tax records this month, take a moment to think whether you might have failed to collect your '92 federal income tax refund. Incredibly, some 96,000 taxpayers never got the...
After two major tax increases in three years, many taxpayers hold two articles of faith -- both of them wrong. Article 1: Neither President Clinton nor Congress has the gall to ask us to pay more t...
Contrary to popular belief, the tax law that President Clinton signed in August did a lot more than swat high-income taxpayers with lofty new rates. It also pronounced a death sentence on a variety...
The U.S. tax system is an unwieldy, inefficient, ungodly mess -- and this summer's shenanigans in Washington have just made it worse. It penalizes the very investment we need to create jobs and imp...
As soon as the new tax law is enacted -- it could be as early as this month -- call your tax preparer to find out if any of the changes in it will affect you significantly. You will almost certainl...
Taxpayers have been tense and testy for months. The mood emerged not long after President Clinton announced his economic plan in February. Then, as the "deficit reduction" bills worked their way th...
AMERICANS don't save enough, and they don't invest enough in plant and equipment. Say that to almost any economist or politician -- liberal, conservative, progressive, supply-side, or neo-whatsit -...
MAYBE IT WAS INEVITABLE: EVERY YEAR SINCE 1987, MONEY has asked 50 professional tax preparers to complete the federal income tax return of a hypothetical family. And every year fewer pros have aced...
You might figure that George and Barbara Bush have three reasons to join in the rising anger over state and local taxes -- the properties they maintain in the three places shown above. But the Firs...
Each year, 12.5% of the 58.4 million U.S. taxpayers who prepare their own federal returns make simple, easily avoided mistakes that may wind up costing them hundreds of dollars or even more. Consid...
Congress played a bitter joke on taxpayers back in 1986 when it promised simplification but then passed the Tax Reform Act -- a tangle of rules that sometimes rivals the Talmud. No wonder only half...
Lip reading will never be the same again. Neither, for that matter, will your taxes. They're going up, all right, but unless you happen to be a hard- drinking, hard-smoking muscle-car owner who pul...
For George and Deborah Courtovich, the road to lower taxes turned out to be the 50 miles of highway between Somerville, Mass. and Stratham, N.H. In 1986, George, now 27, finally had enough of Taxac...
Q: What could be worse than income tax filing day? A: Income tax filing weekend. This year, tax day falls on Monday, April 17, instead of the traditional April 15, a Saturday. But don't be foolish ...
Form 8615 must be filed for every child under 14 with more than $1,000 in 1988 taxable investment income, such as interest, dividends and capital gains. Investment income exceeding $1,000 is taxed ...
Start thinking up ways to cut your taxes over the next few years. Most tax specialists agree that the pressure to reduce the $150 billion federal budget deficit will lead Congress to raise taxes on...
IF YOU'RE LIKE most of us, you pulled together your check stubs, receipts, and other scraps of tax information a couple of months ago, shipped them to your accountant, and agonized until the Big Nu...
I take exception to your advice in ''The Simple Science of Keeping Tax Records'' (March) that there is absolutely no need to keep sales tax records any longer, since the federal income tax deductio...
FEBRUARY Be sure you have received your 1986 income statements -- that is, a W-2 form from each employer and your Form 1099s from banks and brokerages. If not, report the problem to your bank, brok...
Even at this late date there are some tax-saving tactics you can use as you confront your 1040 for 1986. Do not miss a single deduction or credit you are entitled to take. You may not get another c...
Some people think the new tax law erased all write-offs right off the books. Not entirely. In fact, tax reform has opened some brand-new ways to reduce your liability to the Internal Revenue Servic...
WITH THE much ballyhooed tax bill about to pass, many people are focusing on how much they will save on federal taxes. If you are one of them, watch out: You may be about to get blindsided. Tax ref...
Taxpayers in 35 states may get more than they expected from the revised U.S. tax code. The unbidden surprise: higher state income taxes. The biggest losers, says the National Association of State B...
Barring some totally unexpected event, the tax bill that just last April seemed ready for a body bag will shortly become law. You therefore have only about three months left this year to take advan...
As written, the federal tax code dictates the rules of a game that only the wealthiest and wiliest can win. Coached by their accountants and lawyers, they shield their income from taxes by investin...
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