WalletPop Blog

Black Friday gun sale: South Carolina offers two day sales tax holiday

Kelly Phillips Erb — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:30:00 EST

On Black Friday, shoppers across America will set out in search of bargains on flat screen TVs, Verizon Droids, Snuggies and... guns? Only in South Carolina.

The Palmetto State is offering its residents a sales tax holiday beginning on Black Friday. For guns. It is the only two day sales tax holiday of its kind in the country.

The South Carolina Department of Revenue issued reminders earlier in the week for what has been dubbed the "Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday for 2009."

The two day sales tax-free event begins on 12:01 a.m. on Black Friday. During the sales tax holiday, shoppers will pay no state or local sales taxes on handguns, rifles and shotguns. Generally, the statewide sales tax rate for retail sales in South Carolina is 6%. Counties may impose an additional 1% local sales tax.

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"Blade" files appeal in Atlanta

Kelly Phillips Erb — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax, Celebs & Money

The Wesley Snipes show was back in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia. The actor, however, was noticeably absent as his attorneys did the talking.

Snipes, who was sentenced to a maximum three years in federal prison for his convictions on tax evasion charges in April 2008, had vowed to appeal and on November 20 his attorneys made oral arguments in appellate court. The appeal focused on two issues: that the three year sentence was "unreasonable" and that the actor should have been granted a pre-trial hearing to decide whether his trial should have been in New York instead of Florida.

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Aaron Carter tripped up by IRS tax lien

Kelly Phillips Erb — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

Aaron Carter is having a bad week. Just days after his elimination from Dancing with the Stars' ninth season, news surfaced that Carter was slapped with an IRS lien worth more than $1 million. The liens, which were filed in Los Angeles last week, date back to 2003.

Carter has been trying to repair his bad boy image in recent months, including adding a new management team. Carter's current manager, Johnny Wright, told ET News, "It is unfortunate that while Aaron was a minor, his finances were grossly mismanaged by his previous team which has lead to the current situation of which he was unaware of until today. Aaron is working with a new team to take appropriate actions towards speedy resolution of the matter and looks forward to putting this behind him and moving forward with the next stage of his music career."

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Surprise! There's no news on tax credits

Kelly Phillips Erb — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Tax, Taxes-tax credits

Headlines across the country are blasting that millions of taxpayers may owe come tax time because "the government was too generous with their new Making Work Pay tax credit," as the New York Daily News put it.

It sure makes for dramatic news coverage... only it's not quite right.

The government didn't make a mistake when calculating the Making Work Pay tax credit and this most definitely isn't something just hitting the radar of taxpayers. It just makes good headlines now.

The issue of too much withholding has been making news since the inception of the credit in early 2009. Yahoo even appeared to revamp an earlier version of the CNNMoney.com story released on this past Tuesday, titled "Stimulus surprise: 15 million people may owe taxes" from a piece released six months ago. Clicking on the link from the prior story, formerly here, now gives you a 404 error. Hmm.

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E-filing tips that should save time, if not money

Kelly Phillips Erb — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:01:00 EST

Filed under: Tax, Technology, Taxes-income-tax-basics, Taxes-advice

If the trend in e-filing continues, the IRS expects more than 100 million individual taxpayers to file their tax returns electronically for the 2009 tax year.

More than one-third of those taxpayers will file by personal computer; the remainder will use a professional tax preparer or free file at an IRS site. No matter how you choose to e-file this year, following are some tips to make it as easy as possible.

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IRS' e-file program gaining users

Kelly Phillips Erb — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax, Taxes-income-tax-basics, Taxes-advice

Chances are, you filed your federal taxes electronically this year.

According to the IRS, about two out of every three individual taxpayers elected to e-file in 2009, up almost 6% from returns filed electronically in 2008. That works out to just a few million returns shy of 100 million individual returns, or 67% of tax returns.

It's a pretty incredible increase for the IRS e-file program which began just more than 20 years ago. In 1986, the first year of the program, just 25,000 refund-only returns were accepted in three locations, less than 1% of the returns filed in 2009.

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Spanish league soccer players won't strike over taxes - yet

Kelly Phillips Erb — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

Soccer fans across the world can collectively offer up a sigh of relief: there will be no strike for soccer players in Spain. At least for now.

Spain's Professional Football League, the governing body that manages the major professional football leagues in Spain, has been making noise about going on strike. The organization is more or less the equivalent of the MLS here in the US since football in Europe is really soccer; the U.S. version of football is referred to as, well, American football.

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The IRS may be looking for you - to give you your tax refund

Kelly Phillips Erb — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

The Internal Revenue Service might be looking for you -- but not for the reasons that you think. The IRS is actually looking to dole out refunds worth more than $123.5 million to taxpayers whose refund checks were returned to the IRS by the U.S. Postal Service due to mailing address errors.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman wants taxpayers to come forward, saying, "We are eager to get this money into the hands of taxpayers, so don't delay if you think you are missing a refund. The sooner you update your address information, the quicker you can get your refund."

Updating your address with the IRS is easy. You can update your address online by visiting the "Where's My Refund?" tool on the IRS web site or use the telephone version of "Where's My Refund?" by calling 1-800-829-1954. You can also complete a Form 8822, Change of Address, downloadable as a pdf via the IRS web site or call 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676) to have a Form 8822 mailed to you.

The average number of undeliverable refunds rose by 16% this year, but the 107,831 refunds which remain outstanding still total less than 1% of the more than 142 million returns processed by the IRS. If you haven't received your refund, check with the IRS to see if your check was one of those returned by the post office. If it wasn't, and your check remains undelivered, you can receive a replacement check within six to eight weeks of making a claim by calling 1-800-829-1954.

Remember, a tax refund is your money. Don't leave it on the table.

The IRS may be looking for you - to give you your tax refund originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wage earner's bankruptcy doesn't kill all tax deductions

Kelly Phillips Erb — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Bankruptcy, Taxes-advice

Recently, a reader asked about how to properly file income taxes while in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. It's an important question because a key requirement to remain under the protections of Chapter 13 is continued compliance with required tax filings (see 11 U.S.C. § 521).

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is often referred to as the "wage earner's bankruptcy" because it's targeted to individuals who are still earning income. Under Chapter 13, an individual may repay all or part of existing debts over time (generally, three years) as part of a payment plan in exchange for a stoppage in collection activities.

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The taxman cometh: IRS audits likely on the rise

Kelly Phillips Erb — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax, Taxes-audit

As if you don't already have enough money worries. This is the year to double, no, triple-check, your taxes before filing. The IRS is looking for the money it's owed with renewed vigor, and that means a lot more people can expect to be audited. Why now? It's not hard to guess.

We've been hearing for months that the economy is finally on its way up, but the numbers don't actually bear that out.

As of last month, the federal deficit weighed in at a record $1.42 trillion and, depending on what Congress does, could double within the year. Estimates are that within the next ten years, the deficit will hit $9.1 trillion. Increases in the budget have been tapped for bailouts, CASH for clunkers, the first time homebuyer's credit and the controversial new health care plan. The problem? There's no money to pay for all of these programs.

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First taxpayer charged in UBS scandal

Kelly Phillips Erb — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax, Wealth, Taxes-audit

Less than two weeks after the official amnesty program ended for taxpayers who had previously failed to disclose income from offshore accounts, the first high profile criminal case involving a taxpayer has been resolved.

Steven Michael Rubinstein, of Boca Raton, an accountant and US client of UBS AG, the Swiss Bank that caused an international uproar when it was implicated in a wide-ranging scheme to assist foreign account holders in hiding income, was successfully prosecuted in the U.S. government's offshore tax-evasion probe. Rubinstein received three years of probation and a year of home-confinement, and was fined $40,000, on charges of filing a false tax return. The sentence was much lighter than expected.

The IRS charged that Rubinstein deposited more than $2 million in gold coins into his UBS accounts and used the funds to buy and sell securities. Rubinstein did not disclose the account on his tax return, as required by U.S. law, nor did he report the income generated by the accounts. You can read the official complaint here (downloads as a pdf). Rubinstein was arrested in April of this year, and has the unhappy distinction of being the first taxpayer associated with the case to be officially charged.

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A sour treat in Illinois as state taxes Halloween candy

Kelly Phillips Erb — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Food, Tax

This Halloween, the state of Illinois is offering more trick than treat.

In an effort to meet expenses, the state has recharacterized the way that it taxes candy for purposes of sales tax.

The state previously characterized candy as food, which meant that it was subject to a lower sales tax. The new tax rules, which took effect Sept. 1, however, redefined candy as, well, candy, and subjected it to the full state and local sales tax.

That means that in Chicago, which currently bears the not so desirable title of "highest taxed city in the nation," you can expect to pay 10.25% in sales tax for a candy bar.

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Uff da: 2008 tax records go online in Norway

Kelly Phillips Erb — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

Imagine being able to flip on your computer and find out the annual income of your neighbor. Or your favorite teacher. Or the guy that serves you coffee every morning. If you lived in Norway, it's quite possible that you could.

Tax authorities in Norway have issued the "skatteliste," or "tax list," for 2008 under a law designed to uphold the country's tradition of transparency. The list includes personal income and tax burden -- as well as where that individual ranks on a list of national averages. The list is made available to the media and can be found online (though be warned that it is written in Norwegian).

The law which makes the information available is not without controversy. Unlike in the U.S., personal tax returns have been available to the public in Norway since 1863, but the process for viewing the records was quite burdensome.

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Rapper Nas owes the Feds big

Kelly Phillips Erb — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Tax

Controversial rapper Nas has another battle to fight these days. In addition to a very public divorce with soon to be ex-Kelis, Nas has landed himself in hot water with the IRS.

Nas, who has already been ordered to pay Kelis $44,000 per month in child and spousal support, plus attorney's fees and other costs, has apparently not been making payments to the IRS. The result, according to gossip site, TMZ, is that a federal tax lien has been filed against Nas for an astonishing $2,584,206.31. Reportedly, Nas, born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, has not paid his federal income taxes for 2006 and 2007.

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Con disfigured by suicide attempt costs taxpayers arm and a leg

Kelly Phillips Erb — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

On June 30, 2002, Daryl Strenke paid his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Verby, a visit at her home. He told her that he wanted to talk. When she invited him in, he aimed a 12-gauge shotgun at her and fired, killing her instantly. Verby's 7-year-old daughter was just a few feet away.

Strenke then turned the gun on himself, in an apparent suicide effort. He failed. He did, however, manage to blow off half of his face. The disfigured Strenke is now serving a 30-year prison sentence for intentional homicide. Normally, that would be the end of the story.

However, Strenke's bungled suicide attempt left him with significant injuries that make it nearly impossible for him to eat or speak normally. According to Strenke's mother, Darlene, he has no teeth and only part of a nose. He is, she says, in constant pain.

As a result, this month, the Columbia Correctional Institute will begin a series of expensive surgeries to repair his face. Who is fitting the bill for the surgeries? Wisconsin taxpayers.

Strenke will have the surgeries in prison, free of charge to him. A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections explained that there is a legal responsibility "to deliver adequate health care to inmates under its custody." That apparently includes health care issues caused by the individual inmate.

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Investigation expands into Congressman accused of not paying taxes

Kelly Phillips Erb — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) must feel like Superman. Despite an ongoing ethics probe, the Ways and Means Committee chairman has managed to fend off three votes to have him removed from his position. For awhile, it has seemed that he was invincible.

Last week, however, the bipartisan House ethics committee signaled that might be changing. After 150 subpoenas, 34 witnesses and more than 12,000 pages of documents, the committee clearly believes that it's making some headway: the committee has publicly announced that it will expand its investigation into Rangel's finances.

The timing couldn't be worse for the Rangel -- or better for the committee. After a few years of taxpayer apathy, a dismal economy may be changing public opinion. And an intensified scrutiny of Rangel's finances certainly won't attract the kind of attention that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants as the 2010 elections draw near.

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Are late filers setting themselves up for audit?

Kelly Phillips Erb — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax, Taxes-audit, Taxes-income-tax-basics

Fall is by far my favorite time of year. The leaves are turning, the weather is cooling, baseball playoffs are in full swing... It seems nearly perfect -- until you remember that you haven't yet filed your taxes.

While the majority of taxpayers file their tax returns on time in April, more than 10 million taxpayers (just more than 7% of the total number of filers) will file in October. Those are taxpayers who elected to file an extension by the April 15 deadline.

To file an extension, you simply complete a federal form 4868 with your name, address and tax ID information, along with an estimate of any taxes that you might owe. Assuming that it's timely filed in April, applications for extension are granted automatically by the IRS for a period of six months, no questions asked.

It's ridiculously easy. So much so that many taxpayers are hesitant to file for an extension because of the perception that an extension will trigger an audit. After all, they wonder, surely the IRS will assume that your failure to file in April is somehow indicative of bad behavior. Those taxpayers believe that filing is extension (especially if you do it year after year) is the equivalent sending the IRS a personal "audit me" invite.

The statistics, however, don't bear that out at all. Statistically, your chances of getting audited are fairly low to begin with: about 1 in 150. Certainly greater than your chances of getting hit by an asteroid (1 in 500,000) but less than dying in a car accident (1 in 100).

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Bankrupt tax protester gets own bailout

Kelly Phillips Erb — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

Corporate bailouts. Troubled assets. Bank rescues. Federal stimulus. While the Bush and Obama administrations were scrambling to put spins on what they labeled "economic recovery" programs, angry taxpayers had a more simple description: increased government spending.

Increasingly frustrated that their voices were not being heard, they banded together to form organized groups that they called "Tea Parties," a reference to the infamous 1773 Boston Tea Party which sparked the American Revolution.

Beginning on Tax Day, April 15, 2009, Tea Party activists organized a number of protests across the country, speaking out against what they view as wasteful government spending at taxpayers' expense. Many have called for a tax revolution, evoking imagery from the American Revolution and taking as their slogan "Taxed Enough Already."

In the midst of it all is Jenny Beth Martin. Martin is credited with co-founding the national organization, Tea Party Patriots, which has, as a main priority of the organization, to bring attention to and oppose massive government spending. Speaking just before a Sept. 12 protest in Washington, D.C., Martin explained that she, like many Americans "don't want to bailout things and organizations and individuals who haven't been fiscally responsible."

Martin may know a little bit about not being fiscally responsible. She filed bankruptcy along with her husband in August 2008, having racked up debt including more than $71,000 to Ford Motor Co. Martin also lost her home.

Martin and her husband have made no secret of their financial woes, even talking about it on appearances on Fox News' Fox & Friends. She told Fox: "We've been hit by the financial crisis and the recession, and we are like everyday Americans."

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Tax revenues continue to plummet: Is it time to panic?

Kelly Phillips Erb — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Tax

Two months ago, the predictions were dire. The Treasury Department calculated that at the then-current pace, tax receipts for 2009 would be almost 20% less than last year. The drop in tax revenues was thought to be the steepest decline since 1932 during the Great Depression.

Data out this week, however, is even worse. Collections through the end of August are down 25%. Those numbers include collection rates for individual taxes, corporate taxes, Social Security and Medicare revenues and other payroll taxes. Corporate income tax revenues alone plunged nearly 60%.

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