Tax Law Archives - Page 25 of 41

Are You Ready to File Your 2009 Tax Return?

Don’t Mess with Taxes: “If you expect to get a refund, then your initial answer to my query about your readiness to file your taxes will be an immediate and emphatic ‘Duh!’ But my question is really about the filing process itself. Even if you use tax software and e-file, whether via your own computer or via Free File, you need to do some pre-filing preparation. The same is also true if you take your tax material to a professional for filing. So here are some things to think about before you sit down at your PC or Mac or head out to your accountant’s office, overflowing shoebox in hand.”

Taxes Gone Wild: IRS Freezes $22 Million of Joe Francis’ Assets

Forbes.com: “Judge allows IRS freeze of $22 million attributed to tax cheating skin merchant Joe Francis. ‘Girls Gone Wild’ creator Joseph R. Francis, whose personal legal troubles are as eye-catching as the topless women he films, has lost a court bid to block the Internal Revenue Service from freezing $22 million in two brokerage accounts linked to him. . . . The IRS said that Francis owed $23 million in taxes, penalties and interest for 2001, 2002 and 2003.”

Alternative Minimum Tax Bomb Exploded 1/1/10

The Alternative Minimum Tax bomb exploded January 1, 2010, because Congress failed to pass legislation that would have prevented the tax from affecting millions of taxpayers. The number of taxpayers affected by the AMT will jump from 4 million in calendar year 2009 to 27 million in 2010. As the reach of the AMT grows under current law, many taxpayers will face a fundamentally altered tax structure. If nothing is changed this year, one in six taxpayers will be affected by the AMT, paying on average an additional $3,900 in tax, and nearly every married taxpayer with income between $100,000 and $500,000 will owe some alternative tax. Because of the particular tax preferences and exemptions disallowed under the AMT, that tax structure is more likely to affect married couples, large families, and taxpayers in states with high state and local taxes. See the Congressional Budget Office’s January 15, 2010, report called “The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax.”

Cato Institute’s List of Creative Obama Taxes

The Tax Lawyer’s Blog: “Cato Institute’s David Boaz has compiled a list of the new taxes the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are trying to impose on American taxpayers.”

Nicolas Cage Owes IRS Over $13 Million

People magazine is reporting that actor Nicolas Cage owes the IRS over $13 million in upaid income taxes. Cage claims to have paid the IRS over $70 million in taxes.