2008 tax return numbers just aren’t looking good for the government. Year over year revenue has dropped catastrophically, even as spending is up. So how are they making up the shortfall? There’s been some tentative talk of cost-cutting and income tax hikes, but there are some unusual plans that are also in the works:
Continue reading “2008 Tax Return Conundrum: With Funding Dropping, How Will Feds Pick up the Slack?”
Easy Tax Returns: Is the 1040-EZ as easy as can be?
Some of the earliest examples of writing historians have discovered include records of tax payments. Let’s not forget, complaints that taxes are too complex are nearly as old.
Tax authorities have always tried to strike a balance between a simple tax code and a tax code that rewards behaviors they’d like to encourage. The most effective way to do that? Give different taxpayers different ways to file — big corporations like GE may file a 40,000-page tax return, while an individual might file a 1040-EZ. But are these “easy” tax returns easy enough?
Continue reading “Easy Tax Returns: Is the 1040-EZ as easy as can be?”
IRS: “Help Us Decide Who Does Your Taxes”
This just in: the IRS wants taxpayers to help them decide which tax preparers… they can decide to work with.
At first, it seems like a pretty redundant exercise: the IRS is asking taxpayers and other interest groups to decide what criteria they’d like someone to satisfy before that person can prepare their taxes. People already do this — by paying someone to prepare their taxes. So what is the IRS trying to add here? Continue reading “IRS: “Help Us Decide Who Does Your Taxes””
