Picture this: You’ve filed your federal income taxes via TurboTax and everything went fine. You’ve now received the document you were waiting for, and it’s time to file those state taxes. You log into TurboTax, and … your state taxes have mysteriously been e-filed. Is this a new free service? All the tax info looks […]

As we have discussed a couple of times in this blog, the IRS is dealing with significant budget cuts this year that have forced it to significantly shrink its workforce. Among other things, this will probably result in taxpayers receiving less reliable customer service when they have questions about their returns. Another change in IRS […]

No matter your attitude toward paying taxes to fund government programs, few people want to pay more in income taxes than they have to. With the proper advice and attention to the law, the average taxpayer should be able to find deductions to which they are entitled, and avoid an IRS audit. As ABC News […]

The federal tax code is very complicated. Even people who have been filing their taxes themselves for years likely are not experts. If the IRS ever accuses them of breaking the law, there is a good chance the taxpayer will not even understand what they are accused of doing, let alone be able to mount […]

A claim by the IRS that you owe it back taxes puts more than your bank account at risk. The agency may also take your home or other property through what is known as a “tax lien.” As readers may know, a lien is a legal claim against another party’s property. A federal tax lien […]

A 42-year-old Connecticut woman pleaded guilty to tax evasion this week. Over the past six years, she had failed to pay income tax on more than half a million dollars. No, she did not forget to file her taxes, nor did she make a simple mathematical error on her federal tax returns. According to the […]

We recently discussed how the IRS is dealing with strict budget cuts. Our blog post on the subject mentioned that the agency is reducing its workforce and expects to perform thousands fewer audits this year than in 2014. Besides having to tighten its belt, the IRS is also dealing with an old-fashioned computer system that […]

A taxpayer may feel powerless against the mighty IRS, but an individual or business who feels they are being overcharged on an income tax adjustment has the option to appeal. Even the place they file the appeal is not predetermined. Besides tax court, appeals can be handled by the local IRS appeals office. It is […]

In the law, most things can be negotiated. This applies to criminal law as well as civil lawsuits. It also applies to many tax controversies involving the IRS. Taxpayers dealing with an audit may have an option to settle the matter through a process called an offer in compromise. As the name implies, an offer […]

Budget cuts have hit the IRS, and the agency expects to perform 46,000 fewer audits this year, according to Commissioner John Koskinen. Reduced staff is one way the agency is dealing with $346 million in cuts made by Congress last year. Congress approved a $10.9 billion budget, about $346 million less than the previous year’s […]