Tax News

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has affirmed a district court decision that the requirement to purchase health coverage, which was created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ...

The National Taxpayer Advocate has released a report identifying the priority issues that the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) plans to address in the coming fiscal year. Key areas of focus: Taxpayer ...

If you lend money and fail to charge interest at a rate at least equal to the applicable federal rate (AFR) for the term of the loan, you may be subject to below-market loan rules. These rules require...

The IRS e-file program has now passed the one billion return mark. The program started with a pilot program in 1986. At that time, there were five preparers in three cities, with a total of 25,000 ret...

Cash donations of $250 or more to a qualified charitable are not deductible without meeting substantiation requirements. This means obtaining a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the charity....

Usually, the IRS has only 3 years from the due date of a return to commence an audit. However, if there is an omission of gross income of more than 25%, than the IRS has 6 years to act. A question tha...

In general, rental real estate activities are automatically treated as passive activities, limiting annual losses to the extent of income from such activities. However, individuals who are "real estat...

Colorado allows its residents to claim a tax credit for conservation easement donations up to certain limits. Credits above the limit can be carried forward or sold to others. Does the sale of these c...

When a creditor forgives some or all of an outstanding debt, that forgiveness usually results in cancellation of debt (COD) income. It's no different when the debt is a student loan. Take the followin...

The IRS has updated its Publication 4535, Identity Theft Prevention and Victim Assistance, to provide information in both English and Spanish. The publication has: Tips for avoiding identity theft, ...

Through the tax filing deadline of April 18, 2011, the IRS has reported that there were almost 101 million e-filed returns, representing an 8.8% increase from last year. This makes nearly one billion ...

Ever wonder how the federal government spends what you pay in income taxes? Now you can get a general idea by using a calculator (www.whitehouse.gov/issues/taxes/tax-receipt) from the White House call...

Tax scams can cost taxpayers penalties, criminal prosecution, and other serious consequences. Tax scams abound, and the IRS commissioner warns taxpayers to avoid them. In an effort to help, the IRS ha...

Payments can be treated as deductible alimony only if they meet certain requirements. One key requirement is that the payments are made pursuant to a decree of divorce or a written instrument incident...

Last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") expanded the 1099 reporting rule for businesses. Starting in 2012, all businesses, including sole proprietors, were to have begun r...

An employee can deduct as a miscellaneous itemized expense the cost of unreimbursed job-related expenses. One type of expense is work clothes. However, it has been a long-established rule that only cl...

When a loan that you've made goes sour and cannot be repaid, you may be able to claim a tax deduction for this bad debt. If the loan was a personal one, the deduction for a nonbusiness bad debt is cla...

If you've given money to the American Red Cross, Americare, or other charitable organization providing assistance in the wake of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, you won't be able to deduct your c...

According to the latest IRS Data Book covering the government's fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, the overall audit rate on individuals increased slightly to 1.1%; it had been 1% in the 2009 fisc...

A report (www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2011reports/201130005fr.pdf) by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration cued the IRS in on the need to better audit owners of rental real es...