When you owe money to the IRS, it is hard to think about anything else. While being in debt is never fun, no matter who the creditor is, the IRS enjoys almost unlimited power to collect the money they are due.
Unlike your mortgage lender or credit card company, the Internal Revenue Service has the power to attach your wages, raid your bank account and even take your freedom. No other creditor even comes close in terms of its power and influence and taking on the agency on your own could be asking for trouble.
Dealing with the IRS is a walk in the park for many people. They file a tax return each year with the help of a tax resolution expert and either enjoy a refund or pay the balance due. But for most others, dealing with the IRS is a thorny path filled with obstacles. Those challenges could be a result of a simple mistake—either on the part of the IRS or the taxpayer—or they may happen when you can’t pay the balance due, can’t pay on time, or your tax return is selected for audit. Regardless of the cause, handling IRS problems successfully means adhering to certain rules and knowing your rights.
A growing number of people are leaving the world of traditional employment behind. These are the folks who are opening their own small businesses, the people who are embracing freelancing and the men and women who are using gig work to make a good income.
As this trend continues, many of those newly self-employed individuals are finding themselves at a loss, especially when tax season rolls around. One of the worst feelings is working so hard throughout the year, only to get blindsided by a huge tax bill you weren’t ready for.
While traditional employees can rely on the companies they work for to withhold taxes and report their earnings to the IRS, the self-employed are expected to complete these actions on their own.
One of the biggest stories in the world of business is the growing shift toward self-employment. An ever-increasing number of men and women are saying good bye to their colleagues, their cubicles, and their corporate overlords, choosing instead to make their own way in life.
If you are one of these self-employed individuals or a new member of the gig economy, tax filing season could be more complicated than you think. Instead of merely plugging in the numbers from your W2, you will need to gather multiple forms, crunch the numbers, seek out deductions and look for solutions to tax problems you did not even know existed.
If you are running a small business, you have one unwanted partner that will dig into your pocket every year, it’s the IRS. The IRS wants to know what you are doing, how much you are earning, and most importantly how much you are paying in taxes, and the tax agency is becoming increasingly aggressive in this regard. While the audit rate for individual returns has been hovering at far less than 1%, the audit rate for small businesses can be as much as 10 times higher.
It does not matter if you operate as a sole proprietor and use Schedule C to claim your income or if you are set up as a C-corp, S-corp, or LLC - the IRS is watching what you do, and if they think you are not paying your fair share they will certainly come calling. When that demand letter from the IRS arrives, knowing what to do next can make all the difference, and the more you educate yourself the easier it will be to deal with and eliminate, the tax debt.
It is no wonder so many Americans dread the April 15 tax filing deadline. The U.S. tax code already contains more words than the Bible, and hundreds of pages of new rules and regulations are often added.
With so much complexity, it is no wonder so many of us put off filing our taxes until the last possible minute, but taking that approach introduces its own stresses and can potentially land you in hot water with the IRS. What if you do not get it done on time? You can file for an extension, but you are still required to pay the taxes you owe plus penalties and interest. How do you know you didn't make a mistake with your last-minute tax filing? Something as simple as a mathematical error could increase the odds of an audit and put you in the crosshairs of the IRS.
Opening the mailbox and finding a letter from the IRS is frightening, but what happens next can be even scarier. The tax agency wields incredible power, and if they claim you owe additional taxes, they have many different options for forcing you to pay.
When the IRS claims you owe additional money, they will act quickly, and that could leave you reeling, and trying hard to preserve the money you need to pay your bills, feed your family, and keep a roof over your head. If you are employed, the IRS can reach into your paycheck, forcing the company you work for to withhold part of what you are owed until the tax debt has been satisfied.
The old saying that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes has never been truer, or more frightening. In the current environment, fear of the IRS is creeping in, and nothing will get your heart racing quite as fast as opening the mailbox and finding a letter from the tax agency.
When the IRS comes calling, you might think that there is nothing you can do. You may worry that you will have to liquidate your assets, sell your car, or even put your home on the market to afford what the IRS says you owe.
The good news is that you may not have to pay that total amount, and before you write that big check you should check out the alternatives first.
The holidays are here. Not to be a grinch but right around the corner is a less fondly anticipated time of year. Before you know it, you will be taking down the Christmas tree, pulling down the holiday lights and getting ready for the tax season to come.
Tax season is decidedly less fun than holiday season, but the two times of year do have one thing in common. Just like the holidays, tax season requires lots of preparation and planning, and if you want to be ready, you need to start early.
Cryptocurrency has become an incredibly popular way to invest, but the tax side of this virtual coin can be difficult to navigate. The IRS has gone back and forth over the years on its stance on cryptocurrency, making it confusing even for the most diligent investors.
In March of 2021, the IRS announced Operation Hidden Treasure in order to crack down on cryptocurrency reporting. If you've bought and/or sold cryptocurrency recently, it's important to declare your crypto correctly on your tax forms to avoid fraud and evasion charges.
Given how high the stakes are, it is surprising how little thought many people give to their taxes. All too often, individuals simply walk into a neighborhood storefront, hand over their most personal information and trust the person on the other side of the desk to do the right thing and prepare their taxes properly.
In many cases that trust is well placed, and the individual preparing the taxes is indeed the honest and trustworthy professional they claim to be. In other cases, however, the trust is misplaced, and the tax preparer will end up making mistakes that could cost the individual a great deal. If an audit is triggered by a deliberate misrepresentation or unintentional mistake, you will still be on the hook for any additional taxes, interest and penalties.
Fixing your taxation can be a challenging task for people who do not know much about the process. When it comes to taxation, whether you are an individual or business, you have to file your taxes, and while the basic rules might stay the same, there are some primary changes in the processes. Additionally, if people do not handle these processes correctly, they could end up facing some challenges when getting through the process. If people try to handle the process themselves, they might struggle with the always-changing rules, which can be quite unfortunate because they could make some mistakes there. Additionally, there are schemes and rebates that they could claim, but they might not be able to if they are unsure about them.
Whether you are expecting a nice tax refund or preparing to write a big scary check, you know that April 15 is the annual tax filing deadline. What you may not know, however, is that Tax Day is every day at the IRS, and the tax agency is always reviewing the information taxpayers and business owners have provided.
It is one of the scariest things that can befall a taxpayer - the dreaded notice from the IRS stating you owe them more money you can’t pay. When you open the mailbox and see the return address of the tax agency staring back at you, your heart is bound to skip a beat (or two).
No one wants to be on the bad side of the IRS, yet that is where millions of taxpayers find themselves each and every year. As enforcement efforts ramp up at the IRS, the number of letters and communications landing in mailboxes is continuing to increase and one of them could land in your mailbox.
If you do receive a notice from the IRS, it is important to act fast, especially if you cannot afford to pay what the IRS says you owe. You may be tempted to do nothing or ignore the situation, but every day you wait will just make an already bad situation that much worse.
Few things are as frightening as opening the mailbox and finding a letter from the IRS, especially when you know you owe them money. The much-feared tax agency does not contact taxpayers just to say hello and receiving communication from them is not likely to be good news.
When your heart stops pounding and you get the courage to open the letter, you get another shock - in the form of a large amount due, one you cannot possibly afford. So, what do you do, and how do you react?
Proper tax planning is a year-round proposition. You cannot afford to wait until April to start planning your taxes and assessing your tax liability.
Knowing which factors can raise your taxes is one of the best ways to keep more money in your pocket. These five factors can unexpectedly raise your taxes owed at the end of the year.
