Tax Carnival Ecstasy – January 14, 2014

Welcome to the January 14, 2014 edition of Tax Carnival Ecstasy. In this edition we start with an article from Bill Smith presenting the IRS Tax Adjustments made in 2014. John Schmoll has some Retirement Planning Tips for the Self-Employed. And Kurt at Mymoneycounselor.com looks into Tax ID Theft Awareness. Hope you enjoy all the articles, bookmark, share, tweet and like our carnival on Facebook.

deductions

Justin @ Root of Good presents 11 Tips to Finish the Year Strong posted at Root of Good, saying, “Don’t make a huge financial mistake by ignoring these 11 things you have to do before 2013 comes to a close. These tips include a number of deductions that are “use it or lose it” each tax year.”

IRS Tax Adjustments
Self-employed (Photo credits: www.myhardhatstickers.com)

filing

Bill Smith presents IRS Tax Adjustments In 2014 posted at 2013 Taxes, saying, “Taxes in 2014 are set to undergo various adjustments, affecting more than 40 tax provisions.”

retirement

John Schmoll presents Betterment Review: A New Investing Option to Consider posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “Investing in the stock market is vital to building wealth and with the variety of options available of where to invest it can be confusing. Choosing a good brokerage that has good offering and low fees can be a great way to help grow your retirement portfolio and get your investing on the right foot.”

John Schmoll presents Retirement Planning Tip for the Self-Employed: Don’t Make My Mistake posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “Retirement planning when you’re self-employed can be easily overlooked when you’re busy managing your business. However, this can cause a worse problem as you’re also losing out on a 401k match. With some appropriate planning and selection of the appropriate retirement vehicle you can set yourself up for success and grow your retirement portfolio at the same time. Just make sure that the option you select is the one that’ll benefit you from both a retirement and a taxation perspective.”

taxes

Bill Smith presents Start Filing Your Returns With TurboTax 2014 posted at 2014 Taxes, saying, “Get Your Refund Early by Filing Your Returns Early: E-filing with TurboTax 2014 to Start on Jan. 2”

tips

[email protected] presents Tax ID Theft Awareness posted at Money Counselor, saying, “Responding to explosive growth, the FTC has made January 13-17 Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week. What are the risks? What should you do if you’re victimized?”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tax carnival ecstasy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Guidance on Preparing Your Taxes

Usually, tax planning is not included on most people’s lists of new year’s resolutions. However, maybe 2014 ought to be the year when you make the effort to understand more about your taxes. This will allow you to correctly plan and organize your responsibilities. Take a look at TurboTax for your 2014 Taxes.

This resolution will help you once tax season arrives, and it might result in you saving more cash over the long run.

Here’s some advice to help you get started on achieving this goal:

Organize your tax file for 2014. This might be an online file, where you can scan transactions and documents over the course of the year. This will impact on your total tax amount. Alternatively, you could use a bin or folder to store the details.

The advantage of electronic files, like Turbo Tax 2014, is that when your tax is due, you can just email the data to your accountant. Then, he or she can keep the file for use during an audit. Ensure that you have sufficiently backed your data up, just in case an unforeseen problem arises. Including notes on your tax documents will help your accountant understand the transactions, which facilitates the filing procedure.

Examples of important tax documents are: 1099s, W2s, escrow documents for purchase, K1s, receipts for car registration charges and real estate tax, receipts for additional tax deductible purchases, and letters confirming charitable donations made to recognized nonprofits.

All the best to everyone for a healthy, happy, successful and tax conscious 2014.

How To Check Your Tax Return Online

Check Your Tax Return Online

Everyone needs to be updated on the progress of his or her application for a tax return after they file. Failure to do this could unnecessarily prolong the waiting time, which is typically twenty one days. In most cases, the internal revenue service, commonly known as the IRS, is able to meet the 21 day target. However, delays associated with incomplete information or inaccurate details will hold up the process especially if the applicant does not get details of the hindrance. As a rule of thumb, one is advised to keep track of the process by checking the status of his or her tax return online.

There are several ways of verifying the condition of your tax return. To begin with, one can use a telephone to check the status of is of her tax return. The process is simple and it entails calling the IRS hotline at 1-800-829-1954. Besides this toll-free hotline, those with iPhone and Android phones can also check their tax return via a special application, IRS 2go. If you would like to check your tax return status online, the IRS website is the most appropriate place to visit. The website application is easy to navigate through and thus accessible to all and sundry.

The Where’s my Refund IRS web application will help you get the status of your tax return. However, this website is usually updated once in a day. For electrically-filed tax return, the refund information should be available in 24 hours after ISR receives the information. Alternatively, you can check your tax return online by simply having your security number ready at hand while logging in to the IRS website. Going by this option, a number of details would be required, including the exact amount to be refunded. Nevertheless, the goal will be met since one will be able to quickly learn the status of his or her returns.

Check Tax Return Online

Check Tax Return Online

Since the 2008 Economic debacle, the U.S. has looked for ways to maximize income while minimizing expenses. As a government’s chief method of income is the taxation of its citizens, the Federal government has looked to allowing the lapse of Bush era tax breaks, raising taxes where appropriate, and stricter guidelines for tax professionals.

This ethos is trickling down to the state level. In some of the harder hit states, new and tighter regulations concerning the taxpayer and his/her tax bill are coming into existence and the taxpayer is facing new and more intense scrutiny. This effectively translates into greater responsibility and headache for the professional tax preparer.

Already living in one of America’s most highly taxed states, the average citizen in the state of New York may not be aware of the ordinances in place that dictate nearly every phase of the tax preparer’s profession and his/her relationship with corporate and individual clients. Tax preparers have to pay a fee and register with the New York Department of Taxation and Finance if they make a least ten tax returns in a calendar year (deeming them professionals). As the Internal Revenue Service already has tax preparer registration in place, this is a double whammy for tax preparers who reside in the state of New York. Twice represented and twice accessed for the privilege of practicing within New York.

Of course, state and federal governments maintain that this regulation is good for the state and good for the country. Regulating tax preparers provides additional assurance that more citizens are in compliance with tax regulations (regulating at every level will ensure more scrupulous compliance). This regulation may persuade people to seek internet services in order to check tax return online and streamline the entire process.

Phil Mickelson Needed to Pay 61% in Taxes For His Fame

Phil Mickelson Needed to Pay 61% in Taxes For His Fame

“I might move away from California because of the State taxes here”, quoted Phil Mickelson and guess what? He became the hot topic this past January when he had to sacrifice 61% of his money he earned from of 2013 Open Championship and The Scottish Open in the shape of governments taxes. Steeped tax rates and UK’s policy to collect more taxes on endorsement earnings of non-resident athletes with the rest of the taxes from United States government, were the factors behind this dramatic situation.

Phil Mickelson, Open 2006
Phil Mickelson, Open 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mickelson actually need to pay the same percentage of taxes for both tournaments which doubled his pain. He earned about $ 2,167,500 from both events and his complete tax penalty from these earnings was $ 1,324,800. He would be taking only $ 842,700 along with him. That is discouraging for a successful athlete like him to earn lot of cash and then just let 61% of his earnings be in the buckets of government. This is definitely weird and stressing for him.

Now, everybody knows that governments collect all this money for progressive purposes and impose their strict tax policies upon the rich and other high level earners. But these are not the only reasons for Phil Mickelson having to pay the stepped up taxes. Britain’s strict tax policies for non-resident athletes are also being accused for all this drama. Furthermore, he also needs to pay United States federal taxes and California taxes that combined sum up to 13.3%. That is lot of money to pay for success.

What common people might be thinking about all this? Well their sympathies won’t be in favor of Phil Mickelson because general perception about the millionaires is that they are rich and they should be paying lot of money to the government so that it can be spent on the welfare of the people. The common view about them is that they are famous and rich already and will earn more than general people. But money can only be made by offering something that people want and is therefore inherently good.

Phil was recently ranked at number 7 in Forbes list that consisted of the highest earning athletes around the world but paying this heavy amount of taxes to the government(s) is really a tough thing to do for him. Phil Mickelson did not make any statement regarding this issue. He has to pay all these taxes and he can’t do anything regarding this but to wait until his next earning opportunity. One can imagine his condition right now. It is hard to give away most of your money in that way and without protesting either.

Tax Carnival Ecstasy – July 2, 2013

This image depicts the total tax revenue (not ...
This image depicts the total tax revenue (not adjusted for inflation) for the U.S. federal government from 1980 to 2009 compared to the amount of revenue coming from individual income taxes. The data comes from the Office of Management and Budget’s record of the ‘Budget of the US Government FY 2011’, specifically the ‘Historical Tables, Table 2.1.’ The information is also here. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Welcome to the July 2, 2013 edition of Tax Carnival Ecstasy. In this edition we start with an article from Bill Smith on completing your 2012 tax return for free if you have not already. John Schmoll writes about raiding a 401(k) to purchase property and how he would not do it. Keddon Carlisle has some lifetime tax planning software that looks quite interesting. Hope you enjoy all the material, like on Facebook, share, tweet, bookmark, and come back next time.

filing

Bill Smith presents Complete Your 2012 Tax Return For Free posted at 2012 Tax – Free Tax Filing Options, saying, “It’s time to prepare your 2012 tax return. But have you ever considered submitting your federal income tax return online?”

retirement

John Schmoll presents Things I Would Never Do: Raid My 401k to Buy Property posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “There is an increasing number of investors taking out loans on their 401k accounts in order to buy investment property. While diversification of investments is key, the inherent risk may not be enough to offset the potential gain. This is also not to mention the fact of the possible tax implications and loss of hard earned retirement savings.”

Keddon Carlisle presents Lifetime Tax Planning Software | Best Financial Planning Software | Retirement Planning Software posted at Best Personal Financial Planning Software, saying, “This lifetime tax projection software provides fully integrated IRA retirement calculator and 401k retirement calculator facilities automatically apply lifetime taxes related to your traditional IRA, 401k, 403b, 457, Simple, Keogh and other retirement accounts and to your Roth IRA and to your designated Roth 401k, Roth 403b, and Roth 457 account contributions.”

taxes

Bill Smith presents Filing Your Taxes At-Home – It’s Easier Than You Think posted at 2011 Taxes, saying, “Most customers aren’t aware of just how easy it is to learn how to do your own taxes online.”

Bill Smith presents TurboTax Makes Tax Season a Breeze posted at 2009 Taxes, saying, “Financial capability is a major part in an adult’s life. Finishing your degree and getting a job is needed in order to maintain a sustainable life, along with paying taxes.”

Bill Smith presents Filing Free 2012 Taxes Online: What You Need To Know posted at 2012 Taxes – Free Tax Filing Options, saying, “Are you interested in filing free 2012 taxes online? If so, you should know that TurboTax 2013 is the very best way to do it.”

Bill Smith presents Tax Return Extensions Made Easy posted at 2013 Taxes, saying, “Most people these days have such busy schedules and isn’t it a hassle to personally file our tax returns?”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tax carnival ecstasy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.