Category: Turbo Tax

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.

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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.

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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.

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Tax Carnival Ecstasy – May 24, 2013

Welcome to the May 24, 2013 edition of Tax Carnival Ecstasy. In this edition we start with an article from Bill Smith on TurboTax having an issue with their service at the very end of the tax season this year. John Schmoll from Frugal Rules discusses the financial concepts that he understood before he left college in a nice post. And finally Edward Webber looks at the amount of income you can earn before you need to file a tax return. Hope you like all articles, bookmark, share on Facebook, Tweet, and come back really soon.

English: The headquarters of Intuit Consumer T...
English: The headquarters of Intuit Consumer Tax Group at the northern end of San Diego. This is where Intuit develops its flagship tax return preparation product, TurboTax. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

filing

Bill Smith presents TurboTax Survives Twitter Panic posted at 2009 Taxes, saying, “The 2013 tax season was fraught with unprecedented problems caused by government budget fights and IRS delays in updating forms.”

Bill Smith presents TurboTax Sees Glitch, #Fails On Twitter posted at 2010 Tax, saying, “Filing taxes is a stressful task no matter how anyone puts it, and if anything goes wrong during the filing, it becomes a nightmare.”

retirement

John Schmoll presents 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Graduated From College posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “It’s sadly been too long since I graduated from college. There are a number of things I wish I knew before I did, chiefly among them avoiding debt, investing early for retirement by taking advantage of a 401k and networking all with the intention of growing professionally as well as growing my wealth.”

John Schmoll presents Online Brokerages I’ve Used: Etrade Review posted at Frugal Rules, saying, “There are many online brokerages to use as you look to invest in the stock market. The good ones are there to meet your needs and help make sure you’re doing what you can to be investing for things like retirement.”

taxes

Edward Webber presents How Much Can You Earn Without Paying Taxes 2013? posted at TaxFix Feed Update, saying, “Do you want to know how much you can earn without paying any tax in the UK? This article provides all the details and how the limit has been increased.”

tips

Simpsonsparadox presents Tax Evaders! posted at Geek Insider.

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.

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Checking Your Tax Refund Status After Using TurboTax

Checking Your Tax Refund Status

After filing your taxes with TurboTax 2013, you’ll immediately begin wondering about the status of your refund. Nobody likes filing their tax returns, but nobody complains about receiving money back each year. The Internal Revenue Service and TurboTax.com make finding this information a relatively simple affair. However, there are certain things that taxpayers need to keep in mind before looking up their status. Such information isn’t available right away after all.

Socialism ? ... Fiscal danger lurks with nearl...
Socialism ? … Fiscal danger lurks with nearly every choice — Scenario 3. (7:44 PM, Nov 17, 2012) …item 2.. FL Officials File Emergency Rule to Outlaw Synthetic Drugs — Look at this, these are “Scoobie Snacks,” (Tue 5:32 PM, Dec 11, 2012) … (Photo credit: marsmet531)

A status checker is available right on the IRS website. Fortunately, the same checker is available on TurboTax.com, too. An individual will need to enter some personal information about themselves in order to find their status. This process takes seconds and grants a status immediately. By using this tool, taxpayers will know when to expect their refund or whether an issue is blocking the refund. It’s important to keep up to date with this information as often as possible.

Taxpayers who use TurboTax 2013 and want to know their status should keep the following things in mind. For starters, a status won’t show up for the first 24 to 48 hours after filing a return. The government needs time to process and accept all of the tax forms that constitute an income return. Plus, return statuses don’t always update immediately, so nothing is guaranteed to change over the course of a single day or two.

TurboTax 2013 from TurboTax.com offers some great features for taxpayers. Individuals can file their returns for free or use a paid version of the software. Luckily, options are available for self-employed individuals and stock investors alike. The software guides people through their returns step by step without a hassle. In the end, the site even offers a refund status checking tool for users.

Everyone should consider using TurboTax 2013 from TurboTax.com for their return. The benefits speak for themselves, and the inclusion of a refund status checker is a great bonus. Not all sites offer this simple but necessary feature. Without a doubt, this is the best option for most individuals that need to file their annual return. Taxpayers should always check the status of their return a day or two after filing.

A Basic Overview Of The Turbo Tax Advertisement Controversy

The Turbo Tax 2013 Advertisement Controversy

The Turbo Tax 2013 advertisements were undoubtedly memorable and those who have seen them will not soon forget them. It is also impossible to deny that these advertisements were more aggressive in than previous advertisements aired by the company. Despite the fact that TurboTax is one of the most popular tax programs on the market, the company is definitely trying as hard as it can to put down the competition.

Why Were the Ads Controversial in the First Place?

The Turbo Tax 2013 ads emphasized the fact that many tax preparation companies hire trained professionals who do not work as accountants year round. The ads clearly displayed various people who prepared taxes during the tax season later going back to their regular jobs. More specifically, one individual in question worked as a sales clerk while another worked as a plumber.

The ads did not mention H&R Block by name, except to note at the very end that TurboTax handles more tax clients than H&R Block and all other similar companies combined. However, the fact that Turbo Tax was trying to undercut H&R Block and other, similar companies was unmistakable.

The Case

H&R Block retaliated with a swift, harshly worded statement against Turbo Tax before taking the tax software giant to court. In court, H&R Block made a few valid arguments against Intuit, the company that owns and runs Turbo Tax. H&R Block noted that the company puts down those individuals who do not work as accountants on a year round basis, without noting the fact that these individuals do have the training required to properly prepare tax forms. The ads also did not note the fact that many of H&R Block’s employees have extensive experience. Furthermore, the lawyers also note that the ad portrays an unflattering picture of those who work in sales or plumbing.

While the court noted that these arguments were valid, in the end TurboTax won the case and is able to play the ads when and where desired. The courts found that the ads did not breach any laws and, more specifically, did not cause illegal harm to H&R Block. Given this ruling, it is not unrealistic to expect more, similar Turbo Tax ads next tax year.

While Turbo Tax has won the first round of this battle, this is u

Boxing Generic copy
Boxing Generic copy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

nlikely to be the last battle between these two giants. H&R Block does tax preparation in person while TurboTax is a software program that a person can use on his or her own. However, both these companies are vying for the same clients and so are likely to continue attacking each other and other, similar businesses in an effort to reduce the competition and get a larger share of customers.

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