Personal Finance and Tax Tips You Can Actually Use. It’s how we ACT.
Want to make sure you never owe a big tax bill – or any bill at all – when you file your income taxes? Judging by the amount the average American has over withheld from his or her pay, we’re scared to death of owing the IRS even the smallest amount at tax time. That’s [...]
As a self-employed person, do you ever envy your employed friends at tax time? Having your own business definitely increases the amount of recordkeeping you have to do for tax purposes. When you’re digging through boxes of business receipts, it’s easy to envy people who only have to enter income from a W-2 form. However, [...]
Did you move because of a change in work location last year? In this tough economy, many Americans are moving to find work. They can offset some of the expense of packing up for greener pastures by taking a tax deduction for moving expenses. It’s important to know what you’ll be able to deduct before [...]
Did you sell a house, some investments, or even a car this year that you may need to report as the sale of a capital asset? If you sold an asset, possibly at a profit, you’ll generally pay less tax on the gain than you would pay on ordinary income, such as wages. You must [...]
Should you claim the mileage tax deduction or would you better benefit from taking the standard deductions? Are you wondering if you can even deduct travel expenses related to your employment? You may deduct certain ordinary and necessary transportation expenses; however, the miles that you drive to and from work are generally not deductible. There [...]
Can tax preparation software help you find deductions, pay less tax, and stay out of trouble with the IRS as well as a live person sitting in front of you can? For most taxpayers, today’s tax preparation software can do a great job on all of the above. In fact, tax preparation software has a [...]
Are you feeling the pain from your reduced paycheck as of the beginning of the year? When the temporary payroll tax deduction ended in December, our social security tax deductions went back up to 6.2% of our gross pay. It was only 4.2% when the temporary reduction was in effect. 2% more of your pay [...]
