Tax News

If you use your car, truck, or van for certain purposes other than personal reasons, you can deduct the related costs or use an IRS-set mileage rate. The mileage rate for 2013 is:56.5 cents per m...

As a general rule, all income “from whatever source derived” is taxable. Some taxpayers, however, fail to report some or even all of their income. Some taxpayers do so because of an oversight or m...

As a general rule, all income “from whatever source derived” is taxable. Some taxpayers, however, fail to report some or even all of their income. Some taxpayers do so because of an oversight or m...

The Social Security Administration announced changes for 2013. While Social Security beneficiaries will receive only 1.7% more in benefits in 2013, the wage base for purposes of the Social Security po...

If you are self-employed, or a more-than-2% S corporation shareholder, and obtain your health insurance through Medicare, you can treat your monthly premiums as a deduction from gross income. You don�...

The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was enacted in 1996, defines marriage for federal law purposes as between a man and a woman. Recently, a federal appellate court said that DOMA is unc...

An offer in compromise (OIC) is an arrangement with the IRS to pay less than the full tax amount owed for those suffering certain financial hardships. The IRS announced an expansion of the program to ...

Even a 15% capital gains tax is too much for some people.  At least that’s the view in Congress where a new law, called the Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore...

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...

As part of a deficit reduction plan, the proposals contain some tax increases. If the proposals are adopted, itemized deductions would be capped at the 28% tax bracket. Individuals with income over $2...

Generally, gains from the sale of real estate are taxed as capital gains. However, taxpayers who buy and sell property in their trade or business have their gains taxed as ordinary income. In a recent...

Certain imported drywall (much of which comes from China and is referred to as Chinese drywall) has caused blackening or corrosion of electrical wiring and copper components in household appliances, a...

In today's tough economy, many people are looking to sideline activities to supplement their income. Unfortunately, unless you do things right, expenses related to the sideline activity won't be deduc...

Merchants, including sellers on eBay and Amazon, will have their payment transactions reported to the IRS starting in 2011. This new reporting, which was created in the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2...

According to the Summer 2009 Statistics of Income Bulletin, there were about 23.1 million individual income tax returns that reported nonfarm sole proprietorship activity for 2007. This represents a 4...

The IRS has announced the dollar limits on depreciation that can be claimed for cars and light trucks purchased for business and placed in service in 2009. The limits for passenger cars are the same a...

“Small” sole proprietors (those with average annual gross receipts under $15 million in the prior 3 years) who had a net operating loss (NOL) in a tax year beginning or ending in 2008 can ...

While most expenditures you incur in business are tax deductible, self-employed individuals are forced to take some business-related write-offs as personal deductions rather than as business deductio...