From shopping around for the highest refund to failing to tell your tax preparer about life changes that could affect your taxes, a CPA shares the most common tax mistakes.
Certified Public Accountant Gary Craig has outlined some of the most common tax mistakes to help taxpayers avoid making them. Here's an overview of the mistakes you could be making: You might also be interested in reading:
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April 15th will be here before you know it.
Despite the kerfuffle over the possibility of another fiscal cliff and increased income and other taxes, it is only natural to feel some unease over what may transpire in the next few weeks. But we must focus on the taxes that we will owe for 2013. Your preparation for April 15th doesn’t have to be as painful as it may have been in years past, particularly if you remember a few important tips. First, don’t think that just because you didn’t receive a 1099 from another person or entity you did not have taxable income. Remember Tom Daschle, the former Senator from South Dakota and Senate Majority Leader, who had to withdraw his nomination as Obama’s health czar? Daschle “forgot” to include $340,000 in income because he had not received a …
The bills are due Oct. 15, with a 5 percent late penalty afterward; and an additional 1 percent in interest is charged each month until the taxes are paid.
Cobb County property owners will be getting their tax bills this week. To be precise, 255,625 property-tax bills will be mailed Wednesday, worth $600 million for the county, Tax Commissioner Gail Downing told the Marietta Daily Journal. The bills are due Oct. 15, with a 5 percent late penalty afterward; and an additional 1 percent in interest is charged each month until the taxes are paid. All six of Cobb’s cities handle their own tax billing and collection, so residents in incorporated Cobb will also get a separate city tax bill, Downing said. Tax payments can be made: Nearly 99 percent of 2011 taxes have been collected.
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A wave of tax hikes will hit American taxpayers early next year.
Now that Obamacare has passed its Supreme Court challenge, the path is now clear for 20 new related taxes to go into effect. Over the next 10 years, these new taxes will result in an additional tax burden of $500 billion. These hikes, combined with several other upcoming tax hikes, are collectively referred to as “Taxmageddon” and will begin to hit American taxpayers in January of 2013. According to a report in Business Week, the Congressional Budget Office fears the hikes along with planned spending cuts could send the economy back into recession. “It would also result in 83 percent of U.S. households facing an average $3,701 in tax increases, according to the Tax Policy Center,” Business Week reported. Whether or not Congress and …
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The tax deadline is traditionally April 15 but has been pushed back to April 17.
You still have one day left to meet the filing deadline for your 2011 federal income tax returns. The tax deadline is traditionally April 15 but has been pushed back to April 17. That's because April 15 is a Sunday, and April 16 is Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia. April 17 is also the due date to apply for 2011 tax extensions. Two Northeast Cobb post offices will be open until 6:30 p.m.: The Internal Revenue Service encourages taxpayers to file returns electronically. According to a statement posted on the IRS website, e-file is "the best way to ensure accurate tax returns and get faster refunds." For last-minute filing tips, see the IRS video attached.
Taxpayer identity theft usually involves stealing Social Security numbers and filing for refunds early.
It's tax season. Identity thieves have created more than 1500 different tax scams being sent out in hundreds of thousands of tax scam emails, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In an effort to protect citizens from identity theft, the U.S. Government is working to identify ways to authenticate taxpayers without the full use of their Social Security number. In May of 2007, the Office of Management and Budget, issued Memorandum M-07-16: Safeguarding Against and Responding to the Breach of Personally Identifiable Information. The memorandum requires all federal agencies to take steps to eliminate or reduce the use of SSNs in order to protect citizens from identity theft. In the video, Northeast Cobb CPA John Miller explains what…
According to economist Art Laffer, the cost of compliance for the unfathomable 67,000-page U.S. tax code is approximately $430 billion per year.
Here’s a riddle for you: When is an income tax not an income tax? To get to the answer, let’s take a look at the way incomes are taxed. There’s the personal income tax that 53 percent of us are familiar with. Most of us automatically pay this tax to the federal government before we can spend even one dime of our paychecks. Allegedly, the other 47 percent don’t pay any income taxes at all—so they think. That 47 percent includes the government-designated poor, those who are unemployed and those who have so many deductions that their taxable incomes fall below the minimum 10 percent tax rate. There are also those who have managed somehow to game the system. I’m not including the payroll tax (FICA), which also is deducted from every …
Birrell, Lee haven't stated views with tonight's commission vote looming.
For most of the last two decades, the third rail in Cobb County politics has been the millage rate. Touch it with the intention of increasing property taxes even in the slightest and political death very well might result. Few office holders, at least on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, have been curious enough to test that theory. They haven't had to, given Cobb's growing tax coffers that have resulted in gradually reduced millage rates since 1996 (see table below). But interestingly, with a proposed millage rate increase up for a vote tonight, only East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott has taken a vow to maintain the status quo. That's not surprising, because he's been fairly consistent about that position during the last year as the …
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Cobb County's Citizen Oversight Committee has identified several areas where trimming could override raising the millage rate.
Back in April when Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee floated his idea to close parks, libraries and senior centers and increase the property tax rate by only a half mill, I wrote: “Very likely, this proposal is simply a way to scare Cobb citizens into accepting, not just a half mill tax increase, but the entire ball of wax; a 1.5 to 2.0 mill increase that will be permanent and will cover the entire $31 million budget hole. This will increase the actual tax on a $200,000 home by $100 to $140.” Well, here we are in July and guess what: The Cobb County Board of Commissioners has not only shuttered two senior centers, reduced the hours that we can use libraries and curtailed other services, but now is proposing a 1.6 mill hike in our property …
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Let your voice be heard before Tuesday's Board of Commissioners public meeting about raising the property tax.
District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell would like resident input about whether or not to raise the Cobb County property tax. "I ask that you provide me with your perspective about the proposed property tax increase," Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said in her District 3 Update email. "As your Commissioner, I need your input." Send an email with your views about the proposed property tax increase to JoAnn.Birrell@cobbcounty.org, or call 770-528-3317. The Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing to hear views on raising the property taxes on Tuesday at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. The public is invited to attend that meeting.
Realist
5:30 pm on Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Delete Realist 8:02am on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Well do nothing and your homeowners insurance will increase somewhere around 210 $ per year which is twice what the millage increase would be but that is what is going to happen . Sad but true and the County will cut advanced life support so that will put county citizen and their children at risk until your private ambulance service get there. Great… more ›