Criminals who file fraudulent tax returns by stealing people's identities could rake in an estimated $26 billion over the next five years because the IRS cannot keep up with the amount of the fraud, Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George said Tuesday.
Criminals across the country are raking in billions of dollars in tax refunds through a new and brazen form of fraud that takes advantage of the IRS's fast online returns, law enforcement officials say.
If you still haven't filed your 2008 tax return, you could be missing out on some serious cash.
Pretty much everyone in Washington agrees that the tax code is complicated, inefficient and -- in general -- a major drag.
Joseph J. Thorndike is a contributing editor at Tax Analysts and a columnist for Tax Notes Today, where a longer version of this article first appeared. He is also director of the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts, which includes an archive of presidential tax returns. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely his own.
For a century, the bedrock principle of our tax code has been progressivity: The rich pay a larger share of income than the middle class and poor. Yet Mitt Romney's revelation that he paid 14% in federal income taxes on more than $40 million in income in 2010 and 2011 reveals an increasingly open secret: Progressivity is dead for the superrich.
So Mitt Romney thinks his effective tax rate is about 15%.
Should Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney choose to release his tax returns, it likely will spur yet more debate about how much the rich should pay in taxes.
During Monday's Republican presidential debate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he probably would release a tax return in April -- though he declined to commit -- asserting that recent GOP nominees waited until tax season in election years.
The IRS not only doled out fewer tax refunds last year, but it also cut smaller checks with the average refund slipping by nearly $100.
How would millionaire and billionaire investors like Warren Buffett fare under the GOP presidential hopefuls' tax plans?
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett this week showed a little more leg in his campaign to get Congress to raise taxes on the uber-rich.
Warren Buffett is once again begging Congress to tax him more.
Squeezed by tight credit and tempted by record high gold prices, small business owners are finding an alternative to the bank: the pawn shop.
When it comes to taxes, do the rich pay their fair share?
The Internal Tax Revenue unleashed its first smartphone app on Monday, called IRS2Go, which allows taxpayers to check the status of their refunds and find other tax information.
Leave it to the Internal Revenue Service to further complicate the national mood on the only day of the year devoted exclusively to romance.
Illinois lawmakers on Wednesday approved major personal and corporate income tax hikes to bring the state's budget back from the financial abyss.
Democratic state lawmakers in Illinois are scrambling to pass massive personal and corporate income tax hikes Tuesday to bring their state budget back from the fiscal abyss.
Itemize your tax deductions? Itching for a refund? You're going to have to wait.
Lower tax rates may not get the economy back on track again. But they may spare investors from a nasty little sell-off at the end of the month.
Question: My wife and I have a combined annual income of about $250,000. If we max out our 401(k)s, can we each still contribute the full $5,000 this year to a traditional deductible IRA rather than just investing the money through a normal taxable brokerage account? -- Derek N., Colorado
As lawmakers debate how to extend the Bush tax cuts on income, heavy hitters from big business have their own goal: persuading Congress to extend tax breaks for dividends and capital gains.
Estate planning attorneys may worry that their persistent headaches are a sign of something more serious. But once they remember what they do for a living, the headaches start to make perfect sense.
General Electric filed more than 7,000 income tax returns in hundreds of global jurisdictions last year, but when push came to shove, the company owed the U.S. government a whopping bill of $0.
Facing mounting budget deficits and seeing few areas left to cut spending, states increasingly are turning to the only option they have left: raising taxes.
Tax season can be a frustrating and confusing time for those with a spotty employment record and little spare cash. But people who were out of work in 2008 will still have to report to Uncle Sam.
A growing number of people hungry for refund cash are filing their own taxes form home and ahead of schedule, according to a report released Friday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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...
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