Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Social Security Calls In Gov’s IOUs – A Case Of Bad Timing (Yahoo! News)
The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.
It’s time to start cashing them in.
For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out [...]
TAX TIPS: Secrets Your Tax Accountant Won’t Tell You (Yahoo!/Shine)
With the April 15 tax deadline looming, we reached out to CPAs to share their frank insights into filing taxes, audits, extensions, preparers and more!
1. We see many disastrous returns prepared by ill-trained preparers. When selecting a preparer, many people shop price and not experience. We don’t like to knock the competition — however, the [...]
States May Hold Onto Tax Refunds For Months (USA Today)
Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months.
States from New York to Hawaii that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn [...]
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 [...]
