Tax Refunds & Advice

Archive for June, 2008

Five Million Stimulus Checks Still Unclaimed

image-16-62308.jpgAfter all the talk about the economic stimulus package you would think that every American with the right to money would have jumped at the opportunity by now. But guess what? This has not been the case. In fact, there are five million stimulus checks that have yet to be claimed. As you can imagine, this means that there are tens of millions of dollars hanging out there waiting to be sent to consumers.

Who are the people that have yet to claim their money? The IRS has reported that approximately 25 percent of those who receive veterans’ benefits and Social Security, and do not usually file a final return, have yet to fill out the proper paperwork to receive their check.

In March, the IRS sent information to nearly 20 million Americans who fit into this category. Only 15 million of them have taken the proper steps of filing a return.

As of June 13, the IRS had sent out more than $63 billion in stimulus checks to approximately 75 million Americans. By July 11, the total number of checks is expected to reach 110 million. That being said, in order to be eligible to receive a payment consumers must file a return. This is where the five million people noted above are missing the boat. Under normal circumstances these people would not be required to file a final income tax return. And while they do not have to do so for 2007, this will result in missing out on some free money from the government.

Those who have yet to claim their stimulus check can still file a final return. That being said, time is quickly running out for these five million Americans.

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Tax Deductions are your Job, Nobody Else’s

image-15-62008.jpgAs you probably know, it is your job to ensure that your income tax return is 100 percent accurate. At the same time, it is also your responsibility to make sure that your tax liability is kept as low as possible. One of the best ways of doing this is through deductions. That being said, nobody is going to keep track of deductions for you. To go along with this, you need to remember that honesty is the best policy in this area. You may think that it is easy to “cheat” the IRS by lying on some tax deductions, but this is never a good idea. If you are audited it will lead to major problems, all of which you do not want to deal with.

How do you find tax deductions? There are many common deductions that you can keep an eye on throughout the year. For instance, you can deduct student loan interest, interest on your mortgage, and charitable contributions. All of these are common deductions that you should be aware of.

How can you keep track of tax deductions? It is important that you tally up your tax deductions as the year goes by as opposed to waiting until you are ready to file your final return. By waiting you are sure to forget some deductions, or worse yet, add some that do not really exist.

Finding and keeping track of tax deductions is your job. If you want to keep your tax liability to a minimum, and maybe even receive a refund, you will want to take deductions seriously. There are hundreds of them out there; go ahead and find the ones that you can take advantage of!

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What is Self-Employment Tax?

image-14-61908.jpgIf you are thinking about working for yourself, you need to also consider the ramifications that this will have on your tax situation. Many people are unaware of the fact that self-employment tax will come into play on day number one. As you can imagine, it is important to know the details of self-employment tax, as well as how much you will have to pay, before you start working in this capacity. After all, you do not want to forget to pay self-employment tax and in turn find out down the road that you owe the IRS a lot of money plus penalty and interest.

Generally speaking, you are going to pay more as a self-employed professional than you would as an employee. What is the reason for this? When you work for yourself you will pay the entire portion of Medicare and Social Security. But when you work as an employee, you share this cost with your employer.

Self-employment tax is broken down into two parts: 2.9 percent for Medicare and 15.3 percent for Social Security. For Medicare tax, you will pay 2.9 percent of your annual income; no matter how much it is. For Social Security tax, you stop paying 15.3 percent when you reach $102,000. Keep in mind that this percentage and rate will change from year to year.

Still confused about how self-employment tax will affect you? If so, you will want to schedule an appointment with a CPA or tax professional before you jump into your new career. This will allow you to learn the details of self-employment tax, as well as how and when you will pay this money. It is better to get everything setup before you begin working as a self-employed professional than it is to deal with the issue when it comes time to file your final return.

Now that you know some of the finer details of self-employment tax, you should feel more comfortable about working for yourself.DIECI MANI JOKER POKER - La variante “Dieci mani Joker poker” e’ la seconda della lista delle varianti del video casino online a 10 mani, la sua particolarita’ e’ che le coppie valide sono solamente le coppie create da almeno due Re, quindi due Donne, due Jack etc non sono validi ai fini della vincita.

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