Rod's Blog

It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how famous you are or if you are talented, if you owe money to the IRS, they will contact you and will take action to get their money back. It’s easy for people with any level of income to get into to tax trouble. Here are just a few celebrities who had a run in with Uncle Sam.

Taxpayer’s don’t forget!! The tax reform legislation enacted in December 2017 gives you more time to challenge an IRS levy!  The legislation extended the time limit from nine months to two years for taxpayers to take action against a wrongful IRS levy. This will help taxpayers who are wanting to file an administrative claim or bring civil action for wrongful levy or seizure.  This change only applies to levies made after December 22,2017.

While a lot of people know about the resources out there for you when you lose your job, many people don’t know that unemployment compensation can cause a tax problem. The IRS views unemployment compensation as taxable income, meaning you must put that compensation as income on your federal tax return. If you receive unemployment benefits this year, you will receive a Form 10-99-G “Certain Government Payments”. This form will list the total amount of compensation you have received for the year. Beware, some states do count unemployment benefits as taxable income as well.

The IRS is responding to the tri-state area trying to work around the new federal caps on deductions for state and local taxes. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut approved charitable workarounds following the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. The IRS is saying those workarounds are not acceptable to the federal government.

It’s never too early to make sure you’re taking advantage of every tax credit possible. With so many different credits and deductions, the easiest ones can slip right through your fingers. Here are a few easy ways you can boost your tax refund in time for tax season!

Apple is still on the hook for a very big tax bill. It’s been almost two years since the tech giant, Apple Inc.’s, tax deals with Ireland were ruled illegal.  Apple has paid 9 billion euros of the 13 billion owed, along with 1 billion in interest.  But the European Union still has to pay 5 billion euros, equivalent to almost 6 billion American dollars, to be in compliance with the European Union back-tax order. 

Just because it’s summer vacation, it doesn’t mean the IRS won’t come after you. The IRS will still send letters out to taxpayers that are behind on their taxes. It’s important to remember when you get these letters not to panic. First of all, not every letter you receive will require action or mean that you owe anything and if it does, you usually have a frame of time to respond. 

One of the biggest struggles we see with our clients is them trying to deal with a revenue officer by themselves. A revenue officer is an IRS civil enforcement employee who works cases that involve an amount of money owed by a taxpayer or a delinquent tax return.  Their job is to collect tax debts on those cases the IRS has deemed significant. Usually individuals who owe more than $250,000 to the IRS will be assigned a revenue officer.

The states of New York, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey have all sued the U.S. government in federal court over a part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The states are suing the government saying that the new $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT) is an “unconstitutional assault on states’ sovereign choices.”

Veterans could be getting a few extra dollars in their pockets. The Internal Revenue Service announced that tax relief is available for veterans who received disability severance pay after January 17^th, 1991 and included that payment as income on their taxes. This is a result of the Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act passed in 2016.