Tax

Did TurboTax Mis-calculate My Recovery Rebate Credit?

Posted by Sun on June 17, 2009 (12) Comment

It never makes me feel good when receiving a letter from the IRS because most of the time, it’s not going to be a good news (luckily I haven’t got into any trouble with the IRS so far). So when I saw the letter from IRS in my mailbox today, I was first kind of [...]

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Check Your Tax Refund Status Online

Posted by Sun on April 15, 2009 (1) Comment

Like last year, I mailed out our tax forms one day ahead of the tax deadline, which is today. In the past I usually waited till the last minute to file, and, as you can imagine, it was never a pleasant trip to the post office on April 15th. I know, I could have used [...]

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Fees Charged for Using Credit Cards to Pay Taxes are Deductible

Posted by Sun on April 9, 2009 (2) Comment

Yesterday, I wrote a post on why it may not be a good idea to pay your federal taxes with credit cards. The reason is that fees charged by service providers (at 2.49% of the amount paid) cannot make cardholders benefit from the transaction, unless the card has a rewards program that can compensate the [...]

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Can You Pay Federal Taxes with Credit Cards?

Posted by Sun on April 8, 2009 (6) Comment

The answer is Yes.
The question isn’t really whether you can use plastics to pay taxes or not, but rather whether paying taxes with credit cards is worth it or not.
How Much Does It Cost to Pay Taxes by Credit Cards?
The IRS has two authorized partners which provide the convenience service of letting taxpayers pay taxes [...]

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Last Minute Tax Deals

Posted by Sun on April 3, 2009 (3) Comment

The deadline to file your tax, April 15th, is less two weeks away. It’s time to get the work done.
I got my TurboTax software and all the files/documents I needed and started our taxes in early February, but haven’t touched them in more than a month after I found out that, like the past couple [...]

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New Car Buyer Tax Break for 2009

Posted by Sun on March 30, 2009 (1) Comment

IRS today announced a special tax break for new car purchases (the tax break was actually approved by the congress as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009). If you are planning to buy a new car, then you may get a break on state and local sales taxes and deduct taxes [...]

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What You Need to Know about Early Withdrawal from Retirement Accounts

Posted by Sun on March 24, 2009 (6) Comment

If you are saving for your retirement using vehicles such as IRA and/or 401(k), there are limitations on when investments can be withdrawn from these accounts. Since these are tax deferred accounts, either contributions (401(k) and Traditional IRA) or growth (Roth IRA), or both (401(k) and Traditional IRA) will be taxed at the time when [...]

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How to Claim Recovery Rebate Credit on 2008 Tax Return

Posted by Sun on February 12, 2009 (5) Comment

Early last year, the government sent taxpayers an economic stimulus tax rebate check, which is now called Recovery Rebate Credit, up to $1,200 (of course, you had to file 2007 tax return to be eligible for the rebate) as part of the efforts to revive the economy. And by now we already know that the [...]

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Which Tax Preparation Software Do You Need?

Posted by Sun on January 24, 2009 (2) Comment

The 2008 tax season is just around the corner, did you get your tax preparation software yet? If not, do you know which software you want to use if it’s the first time you use a tax preparation software to file your income taxes? When I posted the tax software giveaway last week, I also [...]

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2008 Tax Law Changes

Posted by Sun on January 22, 2009 (2) Comment

If you are preparing your own 2008 taxes, there are some changes in the tax law in 2008 that you should be aware of, because the changes will affect your taxes. The IRS recently published 2008 tax law changes, among them the following are more common to taxpayers:

Economic stimulus payment: The economic stimulus payment is [...]

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