Tag Archives: Taxation in the United States

Last Minute Tips

Today is the last day of the tax season for filing 2011 returns. TaxMama® would like to give you some last minute tips.  

Last Minute Tips from the IRS

Courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today urged taxpayers whose tax-filing extension runs out on Oct. 15 to double check their returns for often-overlooked tax benefits and then file their returns electronically using IRS e-file or the Free File system. Many of the more than 11 million taxpayers who […]

Estate vs Estate

Today TaxMama® hears from Kelly in the TaxQuips Forum, who is confused. Let me summarize. “Kelly’s father died, leaving the house to the children. But the value is less than $5 million, so no estate tax return needs to be filed. Why do they need to file anything to report the sale of the property?”

Grant & Fellowship Income

Today TaxMama® hears from Mark in the TaxQuips Forum, who is bewildered. Let me summarize. “Mark received a post-doctoral fellowship that covered his salary to do research. It came with insurance and other employee benefits. The income was reported to him on a 1099-MISC. He paid taxes on the income. Two years later, the IRS […]

Caring Friends

Today TaxMama® hears from Grace in the TaxQuips Forum, with this charming question. “We have a friend that is dying of terminal cancer and is expected to pass away within 6 months. We will use a web-site that easily allows fund gathering.  But we need to know if there are tax consequences to her estate […]

Diminished Value

Today TaxMama® hears from Robert in the TaxQuips Forum, who has this tale of woe. “My car was parked in front of the house and was hit by a hit and run driver. The car had about $10k in damage that my insurance took care of.  I had a professional report done where they took […]

IRS Seeks Applications for Advisory Committee for the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division

[TaxMama Note: Instead of complaining about the system – speak up and fix it! This is your opportunity.] WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is seeking applications for vacancies on the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT). The committee provides a venue for public input on relevant areas of tax administration.buy antabuse […]

IRS Clarifies Temporary ITIN Application Requirements for Noncitizens with Tax Extensions and Many Foreign Students

[TaxMama Note: We’ve been waiting for this.] Effective Oct. 2, 2012, the IRS implemented two separate clarifying changes to its temporary procedures for issuing Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs).https://www.fiercereads.com/wp-content/languages/new/resume-writing-service.html First, the IRS will allow individuals studying in the United States under the Student Exchange Visitors Program (SEVP) to get ITINs under a streamlined procedure. SEVP […]

Hobby v Business

Today TaxMama® hears from Susan in the TaxQuips Forum, with an interesting twist.  “I am an analyst with a high-tech firm and I teach one course a year at the University Extension in our area. While the course topic is related to my field, I don’t consider myself to be “in the business” of teaching. […]

No Repayment Needed

Today TaxMama® hears from Dave in the TaxQuips Forum, with an excellent question  (let me summarize).  “His friend’s daughter bought a home in 2008 subject to the First Time Homebuyer Credit repayment. During 2011, she was deployed to Iraq for 11 months. Can she file an amended return and have the entire balance of her repayment […]

IRS Can Reduce Real-Estate Costs by Increasing Use of Telework

[TaxMama note: The IRS started on this path several years ago. Many of my contacts have been working from home.https://www.myjewishlistings.com/wp-content/languages/new/photo-editing-services.html CPA firms started doing this more than a decade ago. It saved them entire floors in office buildings – cutting costs significantly. Besides, this can cut traffic jams. Excellent idea.] WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue […]

IRS Takes Confidentiality Seriously

We’ve been talking about IRS whistleblowers lately. One of the features of the program is that it is meant to provide anonymity to the whistleblower. Otherwise, that person could potentially face serious physical and financial harm. Well, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes, you run into a corrupt government official seeing a way to […]