Less than 10 years old, Google has burst onto the scene like few companies in modern times. Now it is learning to throw around its weight when it comes to tax issues. Google likes to utter the motto of “do no evil.” Of course, most people don’t ...

Society seems to change daily as time passes. The once proud institution of marriage has definitely taken a hit. With roughly half of all marriages failing, tax issues have to be addressed. Divorce is an ugly subject no matter how you look at it. Braw...

If there is something people enjoy less than preparing their tax returns, it is hard to imagine. If you look to another to do the job, be very careful who you pick. The internal revenue code is a beast of government inefficiency and confusion. I dare ...

As you know, the income you earn is taxed by the government. Alas, not all income is treated the same. In fact, some is considered off limits and is not taxed at all. The federal income tax is perhaps the most abused, misunderstood and chaotic financi...

If you run a business, you are looking for as many deductions as possible to knock down the tax you have to pay. Following are some highlights of the taxes you can deduct that are collected by anyone other than the federal government. How confusing is...

Preparing your tax return is a task similar to mating with an elephant. It takes a long time, there is a lot of yelling and you usually have a headache by the end. All of this can lead to mistakes on your return. Most taxpayers set out to tell the who...

It was Albert Einstein who said physics was easy compared to trying to prepare his taxes. You probably feel the same way. The tax code is full of oddities, and here are a few that will make you roll your eyes. The internal revenue code is thousands of...

The general assumption is that everyone must file a tax return each year. This is not entirely true. In some situations, an individual or married couple need not file. As you probably know, the tax code is a tiered system. By this, I mean that it taxe...

If you itemize your deductions, you may be in for a windfall on this years tax. Yep, Congress has renewed the optional sales tax deduction. Of course, you have to figure it out. If you itemize your tax deductions, you already know that you can claim a...

As you probably know by now, courts have ruled the IRS incorrectly collected a certain long-distance telephone tax. The IRS has implemented a refund program for people to recover the tax. To make things simple, the IRS has created a standard refund de...

Working for an employer has its perks. One of them is you get a W-2 summarizing your earnings and taxes paid. But what if your employer didn’t issue one to you? The W-2 form is what is known as an information tax return. Actually known as a Wage and ...

If you are an independent contractor, you should receive a 1099-MISC form from businesses that paid you more than $600 for your services. Ah, but what if you don’t receive one? The 1099-MISC form is misunderstood by most people. It is not a tax retur...

Your goal when preparing your taxes is to try to reduce your gross as much as possible. Tax credits and deductions are the tools you use to cut your gross down. Most people focus on tax deductions when preparing their taxes. It is the most common of t...

When going through the great task of doing taxes for a business, you can easily get trained to a tax philosophy. Specifically, you will always start asking if something is deductible. The IRS is an evil, thieving devil hell bent on stealing every last...

The tax code and regulations are incredibly complex, but you are assumed to know and understand them all. How scary is that? Unless you have a very simple tax situation, professional help is the way to go. Finding someone to prepare your taxes might s...