Tax Matters - The Top Tax Defenders Blog

People who work as tipped employees must report both their regular income and their tips from each shift as income. If you work as a waiter or waitress, a casino poker dealer, a valet, bus boy, or as another commonly tipped worker, it is important that you know how and when to report your tips to your employer and to the IRS.

The tax man comes for everyone, even people who are wealthy and famous. In fact, despite having more money that most people in the country, the rich and famous run afoul of the IRS just as often as everyday people. Hollywood heavyweights must follow the U.S. tax codes just like everyone else and sometimes find themselves being audited for violating U.S. tax codes.

You have the right to representation before the IRS. Depending on the specifics of your case, you may benefit by allowing someone to advocate for you and to take charge of complicated processes for which you lack skill and comprehension. While you do have the right to argue for yourself in IRS matters, you may find it more advantageous to allow one of the permitted representatives to assist you in your case.

Business owners typically hope to yield more profits than losses each year. When they do lose more money than they gain, they incur what is known as a net operating loss, or NOL. NOLs can have different tax implications for business owners because the IRS typically will refund some or all of the losses. It is important that they understand how to determine any NOLs their businesses sustained and what to do with these losses after they file taxes.

After you submit your tax return, you may wonder what you should do with all of the documents needed to file your taxes. You realize that some paperwork should be kept on hand for while, but you may not know what documents to keep and for how long you should retain them. You can simplify your record keeping and avoid compiling heaps of unneeded paperwork by using these guidelines after filing your taxes each year.

Like many taxpayers, you may wonder what it is going to cost you to file your taxes this year. The expense associated with filing a return can depend on a number of different factors. You may be able to anticipate your own expenses by knowing what circumstances most commonly affect taxpayers' tax filing costs.

People who work as employees have the good fortune of their employer withholding and paying in taxes for them. All they have to typically do is await their W-2s in the mail each year, file a simple 1040 form, and await any refund that might be owed to them.

You need your W-2 to file your income taxes. Your employer has until January 31 to get it into the mail to you. It typically will arrive in your mailbox just a few days later.

Scammers and hackers are always on the lookout for the perfect opportunity to steal people's private information. As people rush to file taxes and cash in on substantial refunds they are often unaware that they leave themselves open to scams that could jeopardize their identities and their tax returns.

It is perfectly legal to keep money in an overseas bank account. In fact, many Americans do simply because they work and live abroad.

While it is legal to open and maintain international bank accounts, it is illegal to avoid reporting this money to the IRS. You can obey current U.S. tax laws and still keep your overseas accounts by keeping in mind these tips about reporting this money to the IRS.