Category: Taxes
-
A sad but common story of tax trouble
I read a story of an ordinary middle-income wage earner who received some letters from the IRS, ignored them, wound up having her wages garnished. Then she got scared and did not file her 2016 tax return, making matters worse. We don’t know the original issue that triggered IRS concern (perhaps inadvertently omitted items on…
-
How to handle income tax debt
There are three basic strategies for handling past-due income tax debt: Offer in compromise Payoff over time Dismissal in bankruptcy The only way to appropriately access these options is to take a ‘big picture’ view of your overall financial status and expectations in light of specific IRS program requirements. It is never easy but most…
-
Primer on Tax Transcripts
In this age we know that information is power. Tax transcripts are increasingly important for providing primary information to efficiently handle federal tax issues. As a tax adviser, I find that the level of federal tax information available to clients is poor and is often dominated by misinformation and misunderstanding. Tax transcripts give us the most…
-
Tax stress?
This is the time of year when IRS and state auditors pick up the pace of sending out examination notices and this causes some people a lot of stress. I’ve heard plenty of stories about how a person lost sleep or couldn’t enjoy their weekend worrying about the IRS letter. Only one in four of these…
-
Everybody loves a tax cut
Americans have been clear and consistent in their opinions that corporations and wealthy people do not pay their fair share of the tax burden. We’ve known and accepted this as reality for most of our lives with little or no government action to make the system more fair. This public opinion has been largely unaffected by…
-
Sample Tax Services Agreement
This page is outdated. A more recent version is available: Sample accounting services engagement agreement 2021 Each year I’ve modified my tax services engagement agreement as circumstances and technologies change. This is the current version of the individual tax service engagement agreement. The primary goal of the engagement agreement remains the same: to document our mutual understanding…
-
Income earned in multiple states creates tax filing difficulties
Income earned in multiple states can pose a serious problem at tax filing time. I borrowed this example from a tax professionals online post: “Client walks in a $10,000 W2 and has about 20 states on it, with between $150-$800 wages for each state, but zero withholdings in those states. Total AGI (self employed) is…
-
It’s not too late for professional tax filing services!
It is still possible to get fast and efficient late season tax services with the full professional attention that your important tax and financial details. I reserve some time late in the season to accommodate new clients and, in fact, this has become a primary marketing tool of my tax practice. Timing: I offer a…
-
LinkedIn ProFinder to market low cost tax services
updated November 9, 2017 I tested a new marketing tool using LinkedIn ProFinder to promote my low-cost online tax filing service. This blog post explains my project and hopefully serves as a basis for further marketing discussion among peers and advisers. This post documents the process I used to develop and test the online lead generation…
-
Our plans to widen the US wealth gap
The United States is an amazingly rich nation. Our net worth of about one hundred trillion dollars works out to about $300,000 for every person across the country. Of course we know that wealth is not distributed evenly like this. Most of that wealth is held by a few people. Half of our nation’s wealth is controlled…