Earlier, the Obama Administration had proposed taxes on multinationals in order to help raise $200 billion in revenue. However, at the urging of big business, that plan has been shelved. Businesses have managed to dodge a tax bill that some were concerned would tax businesses at a time when the recession is causing problems for the economy. The fact that earnings news is improving apparently doesn’t provide enough of an incentive to change things.
The $200 billion proposal would have changed the way overseas profits would be taxed, resulting in higher taxes for large multinational companies doing business in other countries. …read more

According to its quarterly financial reports, tax preparer H&R Block has posted a first-quarter loss that has barely changed from this time a year ago, but that outstripped analyst expectations for the company’s loss. H&R Block blames its results on higher costs and acquisition expenses, both of which managed to displace H&R’s slightly larger revenue for this quarter.
 
Posting a loss in its fiscal first quarter is nothing strange to H&R Block, which typically does not do as well in its first two fiscal quarters than in the second half of the fiscal year because of tax season. However, H&R Block …read more

We pay fewer taxes than other countries, so why are we so bummed about it?

While only a small proportion of the U.S. population has actually been suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying significant sums of tax to the government, the days may be numbered for this dubious practice. That is because the United States and prominent Swiss bank UBS AG have reached an agreement that will expose secret account holders and deter any future secret accounts. 
 
Although the details of the deal have not yet been made public, many experts believe that the deal will involve the Swiss bank disclosing the names of the illicit accountholders in a way that does not …read more

Options for discharging your tax debt.

If your company has issued you a cell phone, you may have to start deciding whether or not you really need to send that email or text message, especially if you are watching your budget. That’s because the IRS has issued proposals to more strictly enforce a law that views company-issued cell phones as a taxable benefit.
Opponents of the law point out that it was passed in 1989, a time when cell phones were large, impractical, and only used by the most elite executives. Under the law, those who use company cell phones should keep a detailed log of their …read more

What should you do now that tax day is over?

This the the first time in a long time that we have received a tax refund. Normally we owe. But this year we saw the benefit of mortgage interest in terms of reducing how much we need to pay. We’re going to use it to help pay for what we need to put in a sprinkler system and a lawn. We were going to use it for dental stuff, but the cash discount the dentist offers made things affordable without the tax refund.
All of this thought about our tax refund got me thinking: What would I do with the money …read more

I recently received this question from a reader:
How do I check the status of my tax refund?
I admit it: I love easy questions like this. You can go to the Where’s My Refund? page on the IRS Web site. Put in your Social Security Number, your filing status and your expected refund amount. (You may need to check your copy of your 1040 to get this information.) Up pops your expected tax refund date, as well as what to do if you don’t get your refund as expected.
Things can get tricky, though, as I found out the other day. My …read more

Review your situation before accepting a tax refund anticipation loan, and determine if it really is what’s best for you.