If you owe back taxes to the IRS, you may be watching your mailbox to see when the agency will contact you about your balance due. Fortunately, the IRS sends several written notices before taking legal action about your balance. If you've never received a written notice from the IRS, then chances are that your first contact with the agency will come in the form of a CP501 notice, which is generally followed by a CP502 notice. What are these notices? Should they concern you? Do you need to take any action after receiving one of these notices?
The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, goes into effect on January 1, 2014. Most people are aware that the ACA requires all U.S. citizens to purchase health insurance, but they may not know the way that the provisions of the ACA may affect their income tax liability. Tax professionals who will be preparing tax returns for 2013 will not have to deal with the implications of the ACA yet, since the law will affect returns in the 2014 tax year and after. However, understanding the Affordable Care Act can help preparers to offer advice and suggestions to their clients.
If you get a CP71C notice in the mail from the Internal Revenue Service, you'll need to take a few minutes and read it thoroughly. While some written notices from the IRS can be fairly innocuous, the CP71C notice deserves serious attention. The steps you take after receiving the notice can either help or hurt both your account status with the IRS and your overall financial situation.
College graduates and students who are repaying their student loans may qualify to claim a tax deduction for the interest they pay each year. Many student loans are subsidized by the federal government to give students a tax incentive to return to college. While the payments for the loans themselves are not tax-deductible, the interest may be. This can be used on both subsidized and unsubsidized loan interest.
Getting a letter from the IRS can be a nerve-wracking experience for most taxpayers. This can be even more unnerving when the letter says that tax information is incorrectly reported on a previous return. That's exactly what occurs when a person receives a CP-2000 notice from the Internal Revenue Service.
Members of the United States Armed Forces and their families may be eligible for tax deductions and savings under the Military Family Tax Relief Act. This provision was specially designed to provide financial assistance to military personnel, especially assistance that allows them to take advantage of additional tax credits because of the itinerant nature of their work. To claim these provisions, though, members of the military should become familiar with all the benefits they may qualify for.
Do you own a rental property? Are you currently leasing or looking to lease it to someone? If so, you may be eligible for certain tax deductions based on the expenses you incur during the course of your rental business. However, you'll need to acquaint yourself with several provisions in the IRS tax code to make sure that you claim your expenses correctly, document them properly, and adjust them as necessary.
s who make contributions to retirement plans administered by their employers may be eligible to claim the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, also known as the Saver's Credit, on their federal income tax returns. This credit allows qualified taxpayers to receive a tax credit based on the amount they contribute to their retirement plan during the tax year. While it is relatively easy to file for the Saver's Credit, meeting the qualifications to claim it can be a bit tricky.
The Internal Revenue Service has allowed for disabled taxpayers to receive several breaks, deductions, and credits on their income tax returns. In some cases, these credits are available simply because taxpayers meet certain standards regarding age and disability. Some other tax breaks must exceed a certain amount or be used for a specific purpose in order to be considered qualified expenses.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the most commonly claimed income tax credits in the IRS code. This credit, which is designed to provide financial assistance to low-income taxpayers and their families, is one of the few refundable tax credits allowed by the Internal Revenue Service. Unlike other tax credits that simply reduce the amount of tax liability, the EITC directly increases a taxpayer's refund. However, in order to claim the credit, taxpayers must meet very strict requirements regarding their qualifying relatives, earned income amounts, and filing statuses.
