Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Senate Passes $140 Billion Bill Extending Jobless Claims (CNN)
The Senate on Wednesday approved a wide-ranging bill that would push back the deadline to file for extended unemployment insurance until year-end and extends dozens of expired tax breaks.
The bill, passed by a 62-36 vote, is the latest job creation effort to go before lawmakers, though it contains virtually no new initiatives to boost employment. [...]
U.S. Sales Tax Rates Hit Record High (Forbes)
While President Obama’s push to raise federal income taxes for the wealthy gets lots of attention, the continuing upward creep in the sales tax rates imposed by state and local governments has gotten less notice.
But Vertex Inc., which calculates sales tax for Internet sellers, reports that the average general sales tax rate nationwide reached 8.629% [...]
Why Filing Your Taxes Late May Be A Good Idea (The Wall Street Journal)
Should you skip filing your tax return on April 15?
Eleven million taxpayers do, and it can be a smart move, especially for people with complex returns.
Those who are in the process of converting taxable Individual Retirement Accounts to tax-free Roth IRAs can use an extension to make money-saving moves. Home buyers who haven’t completed their [...]
Jobless Claims Down, But Economy Stilled Mixed (USA Today)
New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week in a sign that layoffs may be easing as the economy slowly recovers, but economic reports are mixed.
The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 469,000. That nearly matches estimates of 470,000.
Still, improvement in the job market is [...]
THE TAXMAN UPDATE: Recognize These 6 ‘Red Flags’ And Avoid An Audit
If history is any indicator, less than 1% of Americans will be audited by the Internal Revenue Service in the coming year. And while some of these audits are totally random, and there’s nothing that the individual taxpayer can do about them, many audits are actually instigated by the taxpayers themselves.
To that end, below is [...]
11 Tax Deductions You Can’t Write Off (And the IRS Knows It) (Yahoo Finance)
Although the tax code permits a wide range of deductions for taxpayers in various situations, thousands of filers routinely claim deductions for various types of expenses that are in fact non-deductible. Here is a list of some of the more common non-deductible expenses that show up on tax returns each year.
Spousal and Child Support
Many taxpayers [...]
FACT CHECKING THE STIMULUS ACT: JOBLESS RATE HIGH, GROWTH SLOW (AP/YAHOO!)
Did the stimulus work or not? A year after Congress passed President Barack Obama’s huge economic revival plan, the results are mixed — and hardly final.
Despite Obama’s bold promises, unemployment remains stubbornly high. But job losses have slowed dramatically.
And the nation’s recent economic growth is real, even though the government has spent just one-third of [...]
UNCLE SAM ALERT!: Looking For $$$ The IRS Has Increased Audits – Easy Ways To Avoid Them (CNNmoney.com)
Worried about a tax audit? Maybe you should be. More Americans than ever may be subject to unwanted attention from the Internal Revenue Service this season as the government pumps billions of dollars into tax collection.
More than 1.4 million Americans were audited last year, the most in a decade. Even more audits are expected as [...]
New Wave Of Foreclosures By The End of 2010 is Predicted (Los Angeles Times)
About 4 million U.S. homeowners are 90 days or more delinquent on their loans or in foreclosure proceedings, Moody’s Economy.com says. A federal loan modification program is helping a relative few.
Reporting from Washington – [...]
US Debt Growing At Unsustainable Rate. Credit Rating Could Be In Jeopardy Without New Taxes (Yahoo!)
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s bad enough that Greece’s debt problems have rattled global financial markets. In the world’s largest economic and military power, there’s a far more serious debt dilemma.
For the U.S., the crushing weight of its debt threatens to overwhelm everything the federal government does, even in the short-term, best-case financial scenario — a [...]
