Tax Carnival #40: Late Labor Day

Welcome to the Late Labor Day edition of the Tax Carnival!

This 40th Tax Carnival is a bit behind schedule because I observed the holiday literally, by working, rather than with some of the usual traditions, such as cooking out, taking a weekend trip, relaxing and taking part in just plain fun events.

So this Tax Carnival will make up for my missing Monday's festivities. Let's get to it!

Tasty tax treats
Todd Shoemaker from TaxDollarsAndSense urges Don't Wait to Collect Your Refund!

David wonders Is the Increased IRS Mileage Allowance High Enough? See what he thinks at Physician Entrepreneur.

A lot of folks are curious about some of the new homeowner tax breaks that just became law. Jim looks at $7,500 First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

More on the credit comes from Dave at Money Under 30 in his post First-time Home Buyer Tax Credit Provides up to $7,500.

THE WANDERING TAX PRO Robert D Flach offers us a 1040 FYI: Charitable Contributions – What Is and Is Not Deductible.

Still chowing down
Walter Wallace warns that if you Haven't filed a tax return in a while, you may owe the IRS. It's posted at IRS For Dummies.

Diane Dean presents Taxpayers Assistance, a look at the IRS' two-phase effort designed to answer questions about the service needs and preferences of individual taxpayers. It's posted at Need IRS Help?

Borrowing money? imarketing4s takes a look at Taxes and Penalties Involved in a Loan, posted Unsecured Loans Now.

Manoj Thulasidas presents Benford and Your Taxes, a discussion of some of the tools that IRS uses in locating potential tax evasion. It's posted at Unreal Blog.

Thursday Bram has some interesting news for folks who work from home. SBA Pushes For Home Office Deduction Simplification is posted at thursdaybram.com.

Kicking back
Are you your own boss? Did you give yourself a day off Monday? Now that you're back on the clock, Roger Hadad of Tax Help for the Rest of Us reminds the rest of us not to forget about Self-Employment Tax.

The ultimate time off is retirement. A couple of bloggers have items on this topic.

Cashing in your retirement accounts early and putting the cash in a mattress is a risky, high-commitment method of keeping IRS collection agents out of your nest egg, says David Gross. His post Keeping the IRS's mitts off your nest egg at The Picket Line is the story of one blogger who's started down that path.

Silicon Valley Blogger tells us I’m Self-Employed! Retirement Plans, Insurance and Tax Considerations are Afoot. The details are posted at The Digerati Life.

Let's have some fun!
Play ball! That's always a fun Labor Day activity. Praveen takes a tax look at our national pastime in Tribune Wants to Structure Cubs Sale To Avoid Taxes: Will Baseball Approve the Debt Load? It's posted at My Simple Trading System.

What could be more fun that tangling with the IRS? Beckie presents Can I Represent Myself before the IRS? It's posted at A Tax Consultant for All Seasons.

If your idea of fun is getting a tax bill reduced, then Joe Manausa tells you How To Dispute Your Property Taxes, posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog. "As long as the assessed value does not exceed the market value, they will raise the assessed value," says Joe, "so it is important to know what your property is worth today."

FMF asks, politics and taxes -- what's not to love? To that end, FMF presents Politics and Your Money, posted at Free Money Finance.

Tracee Sioux is thinking politics and taxes, too, and how this election could affect your own personal tax obligation and your family's economy. Details in Top-Down v. Bottom-Up - Economics 101, posted at Blog Fabulous.

Taking a little trip
It's no secret that taxes are a global concern. We have some outside-the-U.S. items this edition for our far-flung readers.

Taxpayers from India will want to read Raag Vamdatt's Missed the income tax return (ITR) filing deadline, posted at Raag Vamdatt Financial Planning Demystified.

Also from the subcontinent we have Lubna Kably, who tells us, "Risk management is a buzzword these days, even in tax land. The OECD, in its recent policy paper advocates risk management for the tax administration. Yes, collaboration rather than confrontation with tax payers is the key to success." Read all about it at Law Street in The Economic Times (August 2008) posted at Talking Tax.

And from a tax neighbor to the north, Dean Paley presents Tax Implications: Shares Of Public Companies  posted at Canadian Tax Resource.

And with that, we close out the 40th Tax Carnival. Edition #41 will be here in no time, our annual TaxtoberFest! So have a few brews and come up with some tax quenching tips to send our way via our Blog Carnival page.

RV photo courtesy of LocalWin;
Napping cat courtesy of GenerallyAwsome.com

Comments

[Lubna]

Thanks Kay, have posted your url. The other articles were also interesting.
Best
Lubna