Posts Tagged ‘Wages’

Tax Debt Settlement Help

Thursday, March 25th, 2010
tax attorney irs settlement
If you are under an IRS wage garnishment due to a previous tax debt, there is settlement help available. Many income tax problems are associated with marriage, divorce, or death. Getting married, getting divorced, or experiencing the death of a spouse can leave many people with owing money to the IRS. If your spouse doesn’t declare the right amount of income, divorces you, or even passes away, you may not be able to determine the amount of tax money owed without the help of a qualified tax attorney.

A spouse can have unreported income; most people don’t understand that if they file a joint return, they will also be responsible for their spouse’s unreported income. The money situations don’t stop there. If you let your spouse complete your tax return and don’t examine it carefully, your spouse may claim deductions that you are not aware of. This is not a problem if the deductions are valid and accompanied by receipts, but what if they aren’t? You may be liable for the additional tax due from deductions that a spouse declared that weren’t allowed by the IRS. Problems of this nature can continue on for years and may not go away unless you work with a professional tax attorney.

If money issues are a problem when two people are married, they only get more complicated with divorce. If the fiscal year isn’t complete when the settlement is finalized, you still have to deal with filing. Some divorces are amicable, but most aren’t. April is the month when most estranged couples experience tax problems with the IRS. Many ex-spouses try to get out of paying money they owe in back taxes. This can result in wages being garnished by the IRS.

A spouse’s death can be even worse. There may be items that you do not even know about because you may have left the tax preparation up to them. When a spouse dies, you may not be able to find receipts or even records of income and expenditures that may help you settle a claim without problems. A tax professional can assist you by providing advice that will help solve any issues that you may have.

If any of these situations apply to you, the best help you can find will be that of a tax attorney. IRS wage garnishments can be removed. If you have a previous tax debt that the IRS is pressing to recover, an offer in compromise can be made. You can settle your debt with the IRS for less than what they state you owe. A qualified tax professional is the best person to negotiate with the IRS on your behalf to reach a settlement amount.



By: Greg Roy

How to Reduce Employment Related Taxes?

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
become tax accountant
When it comes to taxes, we all want to reduce the amount we have to pay in. All tax planning basically falls to looking at all of your options and keeping organized records throughout the year. With a little forethought, you can lower your taxes. There are some basic ways to minimize your taxes: reduce your income, increase your deductions and take advantage of tax credits.

Your Adjusted Gross Income is a key in determining your taxes Accountants Sydney. Your tax rate and tax credits depend upon your AGI. your AGI is your income from all sources minus any adjustments to your income. If you lower your total income, you lower your AGI and the amount of taxes you pay will be lessened.Your AGI is considered your true income level. You can reduce your AGI through various income adjustments. These adjustments are simply deductions that don’t have to be itemized. Also you can contribute money to a 401(k) or similar retirement plan at work. These contributions reduce your total wages, therefore reducing your taxes bill. Remember that what you never see you may never really miss.

If one spouse earns significantly more than the other, it could be beneficial for only one to work. In many situations, a stay-at-home spouse or parent not only reduces the tax burden, but can save money through reduced work-related expenses.

Increasing your tax deductions is another way to reduce your taxes. It is better for you to itemize your deductions instead of standard deductions. These deductions include expenses for health care, personal property taxes, mortgage interest, gifts to charity, job-related expenses, tax preparation fees and investment-related expenses. The easiest method to itemizing your expenses is to keep record of them throughout the year using a spreadsheet or personal finance program.

Resources: http://www.faceaccountants.com.au

By: sanjayseo

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

You and an Irs Tax Debt: Don’t be Afraid

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
tax debt help
What happened? You’ve filed your taxes and you’re in trouble. Maybe you filed yourself or you went to one of those companies that file your taxes for your. After finishing everything you find out you owe money! You recheck your math and deductions once, twice, three times and…you really are in debt to the IRS! It’s understandable that you’re mad as hell or you want to start crying, but the IRS-Hitman has some advice.



Don’t panic…don’t ignore the debt, and do file the return. You can try to put off the debt by requesting an extension; October 15th is the latest you can put it off. This could give you a chance to come up with the money that you owe by then. But you do have to file, and the longer you wait the harder the debt will be to deal with.

Depending on how much you owe, you can try to deal with the IRS on your own, or you can seek professional tax help. The first thing you need to do however is to jump on the problem immediately! Do not wait.

Can I bury my head in the sand? I recommend against this. What happens if you wait? First of all the IRS starts sending you letters telling you how much you owe, and asks that you contact them to setup arrangements. If you don’t respond to the IRS then…well, things can get real bad real fast for you. The IRS can seize your wages, seize you bank account, or any other accounts you have. They can also put a levy on your home. That’s why taking immediate action is so important.

But wait… There are options available to you. You want to take action, but you have no way to pay the debt in full. Most people can’t pay their IRS debt in full, and usually it’s over $1,000. Not too many people have that kind of money lying around.

• Setup a payment plan with the IRS.

• Apply for an Offer in Compromise. This can reduce your debt to pennies on the dollar. Beware however, this is very difficult to get, and the IRS frequently denies applicants.

• Apply for Currently Not Collectible status. Again this is very difficult as you have to prove to the IRS that you are living at the bare minimum.

Choose wisely…However you choose to deal with your IRS tax debt is up to you. The key is to make a choice, and not to bury your head in the sand. Just because you don’t see an IRS-Hitman doesn’t mean he doesn’t have you in his sights.

Now you have the smoking gun…Use it!



By: IRS Hitman

Using S Corporations for Real Estate Investment

Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Some accountants like to say there’s an eleventh commandment, “Thou shall not hold real estate inside a corporation.” And, in general, this rule holds true. Inside a corporation, real estate loses many of its tax benefits.

In a handful of cases, however, a special sort of corporation– a subchapter S corporation–may be useful for real estate investors, as discussed below…

S Corporations Work Well for Real Estate Flippers

One situation where an S corporation works well is flipping.

If someone regularly flips real estate, profits and losses are not treated as capital gains or capital losses. Rather, profits and losses are treated as ordinary income and loss.

That “ordinary” treatment isn’t all bad. For example, while ordinary income never gets taxed using the low capital gains rates (which is bad), an ordinary loss unlike a capital loss can easily be used to offset other income (which is good).

However, “ordinary” treatment creates a trap for real estate flippers. Ordinary income is subject not just to income taxes–but also to self-employment taxes. Specifically, in addition to any income taxes a real estate flipper pays on his or her profits, a flipper also pays a 15.3% self-employment tax on roughly the first $100,000 of annual profit and a 2.9% self-employment tax on anything over $100,000 in annual profit.

For example, a house flipper that makes $100,000 in some year pays not only income taxes but also a 15.3% self-employment tax, or roughly $15,000.

An S corporation, however, offers up a loophole. In an S corporation, only that portion of the profit that gets paid out as designated wages gets subjected to the employment tax.

Suppose, for example, a real estate flipper operates as an S corporation, makes $100,000 in profit some year, but pays only $50,000 of this profit out to the shareholder-employee as wages. In this case, the employment tax equals 15.3% of the $50,000 of wages, or roughly $7500. And the S corporation therefore saves the real estate investor about $7500.

S Corporations Work Well for Rehabbers

And there’s a related group of real estate investors for whom an S corporation works, too.

If you’re someone who’s buying fixers, making substantial improvements, and then re-selling, there’s a good chance that your real estate activities are considered an active trade or business (which means ordinary income treatment and self-employment taxes).

Accordingly, rehabbers may be able to use an S corporation to save on employment taxes, too, just like flippers do.

A quick digression: If you’re confused about how real estate flipping or rehabbing can be treated as an active trade or business and subject to both ordinary income and self-employment taxes, think about the cases of a retailer or a home builder. A retailer selling, for example, furniture does not get to call his profit capital gain. And a home builder constructing spec homes does not get to call his profit capital gain.

From the point of the tax laws, a flipper is just a “retailer” whose inventory consists of houses. And a rehabber is sort of a home builder.

S Corporations For Property Management Activities

One other S corporation opportunity exists for real estate investors. Specifically, passive real estate investors may sometimes benefit by setting up an S corporation to perform property management for their real estate. This S corporation then employs the real estate investor to do the work of managing, the properties.

A property management S corporation sometimes makes sense because the S corporation allows the real estate investor to accrue social security benefits and because the S corporation, by creating earned income for the real estate investor, also lets the investor provide him- or herself with tax-free fringe benefits like a retirement plan or health insurance.

A real estate investor with, for example, half a dozen rental properties might be able to setup a property management S corporation, pay a modest but fair salary, and then provide tax-free health insurance and a 401(k) to his or her family. These sorts of tax-free fringe benefits could save a family $5,000 to $10,000 a year in taxes.

Note: Setting up an S corporation for property management purposes can be tricky. While real estate investors tend to be a do-it-yourself bunch, for an S corporation, you probably want to get expert help from a knowledgeable CPA, tax attorney or enrolled agent.



By: Stephen L. Nelson, CPA

The U.S. Attorney General and Tax Obligations of the Jobless

Saturday, October 10th, 2009
Taxes for Unemployed Persons. Advice by the U.S. Attorney General}. Everyone can be potentially regardered as the unemployed. And you might ask a question: Is a man being unemployed liable to levies? The answer is put beneath and it is based on the positions of Income Tax Law supported by the U.S. Attorney General.

So, if you have lost your work and now are unemployed, so, you scarcely want to consider the issue of income levy and so on. However in this troublesome occasion you should obtain enough of material about diverse tax system aspects and obtainable profit reachable for you.

Income tax on severance, vacation and sick payment.

Severance, vacation and sick payment are ordered to be ratable. You must pay income tax as when you were engaged and paid levy on your income (wages or salary). To do that you ought to fill in the form (Form W-2). Your severance, vacation and sick payment are to be included into your annual tax declaration. If you have lost your work because of your chief’s loss of business you still have to get the slip from your former chief or any representative of him. If you have got some {difficulties with that procedure you can get a consultation of a professional tax attorney, who will explain you all the details and give a helping hand in your trouble.

Compensation for being unemployed.

You must be aware of that your unemployment compensation is also ratable. You may be given compensation for various periods (26 weeks or extra 13 weeks term), all this issues are ratable. You may be offered to opt the form due to which you will pay your income levy (the amounts may differ). Compensation for being unemployed will be fixed in your tax declaration. When filing a tax declaration you may find out that your profit for the last year was less than it is stipulated by the limit under which it is necessary to file a tax declaration. In this case you may take an advantage from this. The thing is that it is achievable to get a compensation for the too much tax level.

You may also take into consideration some profits which are not ratable.

As a rule takings from various payments of social support are not ratable. If you have got some sponsorship funds for any scientific program, you are not obliged to take in them as an profit to your tax declaration. Immobilized men are also not responsible for income levy for achieving some things, capital or services.

Payments on credit assistance due to the Federal Income Tax Law are also not to be included to the tax declaration.

If you get funding (post-adversity ones) which are aimed at assist you in compensating some medical services or moving, you don’t have to pay levy for them. But your unemployment compensation due to the adversity is ratable. Compensations for mending, recuperating your abode or eliminating something to relief your adversity are not ratable.



By: Solomon Guthrie
Search
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline