Personal Finance Advice

That is my question for today. How much do you pay in taxes? Remember the answer you have just given and keep reading. I had an interesting conversation with a friend a couple of days ago on this subject. We were talking about taxes and some of the new tax laws when I asked, “How [...]

The tax preparers have seen the light and realize there is more money to be made being loan sharks than by preparing your taxes. And they have taken it to a whole new level this year by not even requiring you to fill out a tax return…simply bring in your year end pay stub, they [...]

I received an email from a TV producer named Pam Wheaton Shorr who has sought people from our forums on other stories in the past that is putting together a story about the new IRS option to split your tax refund into several different accounts. This is what she is looking for: I produce consumer [...]

The following story has been circulating around the Internet since 2001, but it is always a humorous read (and will get you thinking a bit) as people start to put their taxes together so I thought I’d place it up for some that may have missed it: This is a VERY simple way to understand [...]

Had to smile when I saw this: Courtesy of blakefacey

I received a package in the mail the other day with a line of books called Tax Deductions A to Z by Anne Skalka ($12.95 each) which I found to be an interesting twist to most tax books I come across. First, instead of trying to include tax information for every possible situation and for [...]

If you’re one of the 9.6 million people that filed an extension for filing your taxes and have been procrastinating, you have a week before they absolutely have to be turned in. Monday October 16 is the deadline for all those that filed an extension to submit their Federal taxes. It is still possible to [...]

If you paid long distance telephone tax (after Feb. 28, 2003 and before Aug. 1, 2006), you will qualify for a $30 to $60 tax refund on your 2006 tax return. The IRS has announced standard amounts for the refund meaning that people won’t have to sort through their old telephone bills to figure out [...]

I mentioned earlier that the IRS was planning to allow taxpayers to designate their refund to several accounts rather than just one beginning next year. The IRS just released a sample copy of IRS Form 8888 which will allow you to do this and they are requesting public comment on this new split refund form [...]

Some good news from the IRS today. Beginning January 2007, if you are getting a tax refund, you can designate the tax refund to go into up to three different accounts. Previously you could only designate a single savings or checking account to have the entire refund deposited into. This meant that if you wanted [...]

I read an interesting article about new legislation being proposed in California where your tax refund could be split and sent to two different accounts instead of just one. The reasoning is that by doing this, people will be more likely to send part of their tax refund to a retirement savings account instead of [...]

Get your fill of tax cartoons: Tax Cartoons 2006

While most people don’t like to pay taxes, what’s even worse is when you know someone who should be paying taxes, but they are cheating on them to not pay their fair share. According to the IRS, taxpayers underpay their taxes by some $300 billion. If you have enough information on how they are cheating [...]

With taxes due just around the corner, you have (or soon will) find out whether you’re paying or receiving a refund. While a large tax refund is fun to get, it’s also an indication that you’re not having the correct amount withheld from your paychecks. When you receive a large tax refund, what you’re basically [...]

With the tax deadline right around the corner, you have already finished your taxes or will be finishing them soon. now is a great time to look at what deductions you were able to take and see if you can increase them for next year. If you file a Schedule A (Itemized Deductions) when doing [...]

You’ll be able to get a lot more information on the Google Finance from other sources – it seems geared toward companies and investing rather than personal finances, but there is one nice feature that I wanted to point out for those tracking their individual stocks. If you have a Gmail account (if you don’t, [...]

The latest of our satellite sites is TaxPressRelease.com. It will be interesting to see how this site develops. I decided to build this one for a couple of reasons. First, when the IRS makes changes, they sometimes rewrite or delete old press releases which has often frustrated me when trying to write articles. I therefore [...]

One of the joys (see sarcasm dripping all around) of living in a foreign country is that you get to do taxes twice. While Japanese tax forms are not near as complicated as taxes in the US, the simplicity factor is completely erased because… they’re in Japanese!. I struggled with them until 4:00 AM so [...]

If you ever had a doubt that credit card companies only had their best interest in mind, you can see it clearly in the recent escalation of credit card offers aimed to entice you to put your taxes on your credit card. This includes such cards as Chase offering double mileage on the United Mileage [...]

I just finished up an article on the main site about some simple steps you can take to help avoid a tax audit They include: 1. Make sure all the math calculations on your return are correct 2. Be sure to sign your tax return. 3. Be sure to fill out form 4868 to get [...]