Many individuals across Georgia make their livings as independent contractors with the large businesses that call the Atlanta metro home. For a lot of these contractors, the thought of navigating the tax labyrinth can be stressful enough to warrant outsourcing their...
Month: July 2020
When a business or self-employed individual has fallen behind in estimated tax payments
One of the greatest organizational and cash-flow obligations for small business owners and self-employed people is to stay up to date with estimated tax payments. If your small business or you as a self-employed individual have fallen behind in estimated tax payments...
Tax payment plan vs. tax settlement: What’s the difference?
Many serious tax problems stem from a simple and relatively common situation: being unable to pay the amount due to the IRS. What many people who find themselves in this situation do not realize, however, is that being unable to afford a tax payment is not necessarily...
IRS miscalculates interest on recent notices
In July, the Internal Revenue Service announced an interest rate calculation error on notices sent to taxpayers. The IRS uses form CP2000 when discrepancies exist between what is reported on a taxpayer’s return and information reported by an employer or bank. These...
April 15 is right around the corner, have you started your taxes?
Even though the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) did not begin accepting tax returns until January 31 – a delay due to last year’s 16-day government shutdown – U.S. taxpayers need to be aware that there will be no automatic extension to file their 2013 tax returns....
FBAR, OVDP and the alphabet soup of offshore account compliance
Time is running short to disclose offshore accounts. Changes to the voluntary disclosure program could mean even higher penalties as the IRS and Department of Justice continue to investigate more foreign banks. Add to that list of acronyms the Foreign Account Tax...
Good recordkeeping can help your business survive an IRS tax audit
According to the Tax Receipts website, small business owners are up to 940 percent more likely to be audited than W-2 wage earners. In particular, business owners who operate as sole proprietors or single-member LLCs face a much higher risk of being audited than the...
New IRS filing deadlines and other changes for offshore account holders
A number of recent changes to federal tax law came in an unlikely package: a piece of legislation known as the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Act of 2015. As the name suggests, that law deals primarily with non-tax issues. However, it contains...
Innocent spouse relief from problematic tax returns filed with IRS
On behalf of Jeffrey S. Gartzman at The Gartzman Law Firm, P.C. Federal tax law provides relief to certain spouses who innocently signed joint returns not knowing of their spouses’ underreporting or erroneous entries. When a married couple files a joint federal tax...
Tips for protecting against tax-related identity fraud
Consumers can lower their risk of tax refund fraud by recognizing scams, protecting sensitive information and watching for early signs of identity theft. Tax-related identity fraud has become a prevalent problem in recent years. In 2015, the Federal Trade Commission...