Tax Help Articles

Tax Preparers Cracking Down

Burden for preparers
Tax preparers may start being tougher in asking you to prove your entitlement to certain deductions. This is because a law was recently passed that requires these professionals to help weed out tax dodgers. This may result in increased paperwork and greater fees to some taxpayers since a longer amount of time will [...]

Tax Refund Anticipation Loan – Consumer Advisory

This tax season 10% of Americans will let someone borrow them their own money through a tax refund anticipation loan.  Rates might be as high as 744%.  A rapid refund is just your income tax refund given to you on the spot by your tax preparation service- usually within 1-2 days.  Rather than waiting for [...]

Free Tax Advice in Virginia

Riding on the coattails of TurboTax’s Free Tax Question gimmick, the Virginia society for Certified Public Accountants have decided to throw their own version of this same shindig. 
Anyone who files federal or state tax returns in the Commonwealth of Virginia is offered free tax help and tax advice through the Tax Resource Center part of their website: [...]

How to Pick A Tax Attorney

First and most importantly before we lay out the basics of making a wise choice-one that will hopefully develop into a long term professional relationship; it is important to decide why you want a tax attorney. Truly, the myth of the safety net that tax attorneys provide is just that a myth.  Having said that, [...]

Free Tax Advice

The folks at TurboTax have started FreeTaxQuestion.com. Their ads say that after you submit your tax question there, a real person will call you and answer your question within 24-48 hours.
Here’s the question sent in by the filife blogger:
Should I file individually (as opposed to my parents claiming me as an exemption)? I’m under 24 [...]

5 Small Business Tax Deductions You Don’t Want to Miss

The tax formula is fairly straightforward: your small business must pay taxes on what’s left of your revenues after you have deducted all your expenses. With that said, it would seem to make sense to claim the maximum allowable number and amount of deductions in order to reduce your tax liability. Luckily, the IRS gives [...]