Tax News

A taxpayer took a distribution from her IRA of $524,981.89 to pay for the purchase of a home while she waited for the sale of her former home to close. When it did, she overnighted a check to the fina...

On July 1, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Taxpayer First Act (P.L. 116-25), which is legislation focused on IRS practices and procedures. The IRS is supposed to enhance customer service to ...

Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, has released her final report (she’s retiring after serving for 18 years) (IR-2019-119, 6/20/19). The report reviews the 2019 tax filing season and lists ...

Prior to 2018, homeowners could exclude from gross income the cancellation of a mortgage on their principal residence up to $2 million. This exclusion was limited to a loan to buy, build, or substanti...

When you own an IRA, you can designate who you want to inherit it. This can be a spouse, a child, a trust, or your estate. There are different tax consequences for each type of designation you select....

If you report income on your return that doesn’t match what’s been reported by banks, brokerage firms, and other third parties, to the IRS, you may receive IRS Notice CP2000 (FS-2019-10). This not...

The IRS has announced that the interest rates applicable to overpayments and underpayments of federal taxes is lower in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the rates in the second quarter of the y...

Recently, the IRS announced next year’s contribution limits for health savings accounts (HSAs), as well as requirements for high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to which HSAs must be linked (Rev. Pr...

If you buy or lease a car, light truck, or van for your business, special tax rules may limit what you can write off. If you buy the vehicle, dollar limits cap depreciation write-offs. If you lease th...

The IRS has one mission: “to provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness ...

If you’ve already filed your 2018 federal income tax return and used the worksheet in the instructions to Schedule D to figure the 25% tax rate on unrecaptured depreciation and the 28% tax rate appl...

A woman with a dependent child purchased health coverage from the Health Insurance Marketplace (Exchange), which determined she was eligible for an advance premium tax credit for 2015 of $371 per mont...

One taxpayer who faced a mountain of debts, including more than $9,000 to the IRS and his state’s revenue department, had a plan. He’d withdraw funds from his IRA, place them in his personal back ...

If you itemize deductions that include state and local taxes and then receive a refund related to those taxes in the next year, how much if any of the refund must be included in gross income? The tax ...

The IRS has released its annual list of the top 12 tax scams that taxpayers should avoid (IR-2019-49). They are essential the same as last year, although some scams are featured more prominently than ...

For nearly 70 years, clergy receiving housing (an in-kind benefit) or a housing allowance (a cash benefit) were able to exclude the full amount from gross income. However, the Freedom From Religion Fo...

If you receive a lump-sum payment of Social Security benefits reflecting amounts attributable to prior years, you can elect to use income from the prior years to figure the taxable portion of benefits...

For the second quarter of 2019 (April 1 through June 30, 2019), the IRS interest rate on individual tax refunds and tax underpayments is remaining at 6% (Rev. Rul. 2019-5). This is the same rate that ...

The IRS has responded to public pressure by expanding estimated tax relief for 2018. We earlier reported that in recognition of the extensive changes brought by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the IRS w...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set bonus depreciation for passenger automobiles at 100% (previously it was 50%), which translates into an additional $8,000 write-off for the year they are purchased and pla...