Last week at my other tax blog (2014)

It's that time again. Another new tax year has rolled around.

2014 came in with less fanfare than 2013's fiscal cliff falderal. But that doesn't mean that the tax world was calm.

The House and Senate left with much tax business undone. And although Congress agreed to a two-year federal budget so we won't have a repeat of last fall's government shutdown, there's still that pesky matter of the debt ceiling hanging out there.

As has been my practice, I'll be recapping what happened last week at my Bankrate Taxes Blog here at Don't Mess With Taxes each weekend (mostly Saturdays ... I hope!).

If you happen to miss those roundups, you can find the synopses posts listed here in this directory.

So without further ado, here's how my 2014 Bankrate tax blogging is going.

Dec. 30, 2014: 5 tax-saving moves you can make by Dec. 31, plus preparing for 2015 filing season
Dec. 24, 2014: Charitable gifts: a present for those in need and you at tax time
Dec. 17, 2014: Tax filing projections for the 2015 season and beyond
Dec. 14, 2014: Cutting IRS budget is a bad idea for taxpayers, U.S. Treasury
Dec. 5, 2014: Taxpayers, IRS await Senate action on 2014's tax extenders
Nov. 28, 2014: Factor sales and use taxes into your holiday shopping budget
Nov. 23, 2014: Tax crimes, in the U.S. and internationally
Nov. 14, 2014: Tax help for fire, ice and other disasters
Nov. 9, 20914: IRS taxpayer service outlook, short- and long-term, is bleak
Nov. 1, 2014: Best states for business tend to have no or low taxes
Oct. 26, 2014: IRS seizes honest taxpayers' assets under forfeiture program
Oct. 18, 2014: Payroll tax unnoticed by workers, but welcomed by Treasury
Oct. 12, 2014: Taxes account for a large part of cellular phone bills
Oct. 5, 2014: How do states tax the cloud? There's no consensus ... yet.
Sept. 27, 2014: Lying to your tax pro could result in a bad tax situation
Sept. 21, 2014: Getting old sucks. We can't stop Father Time, but we can prepare physically, emotionally and financially
Sept. 14, 2014: What do workers want? At some offices, it's tax-free lunches
Sept. 6, 2014: Georgia, Indiana and Uncle Sam work to stop tax refund fraud
Aug. 31, 2014: Checking out charities before you give
Aug. 22, 2014: Massachusetts unemployment overpayment calls are legit, but other telephone contacts across the country are tax scams
Aug. 18, 2014: Pot tourism's potential tax payoff for states with legal weed
Aug. 9, 2014: Both sides of Obamacare tax subsidy fight appeal earlier court rulings, one all the way to the Supreme Court
Aug. 3, 2014: States see electronic cigarettes as a new tax source
July 25, 2014: Obama says corporate tax inversions are 'gaming the system'
July 17, 2014: Tax preparer oversight goes to court again: AICPA vs. IRS
July 12, 2014: IRS employee suspended for Obama reelection effort
July 4, 2014: Fireworks, flags and taxes for July 4th
June 28, 2014: Congress wants to consolidate the many education tax breaks
June 22, 2014: Save space and trees: Digitize your tax records
June 14, 2014: More taxpayer rights, fewer tax haven company contracts
June 7, 2014: Highest property tax bill in the U.S. comes to $1.275 million
June 1, 2014: Debate continues about tax havens and punishment fairness
May 23, 2014: Tax holidays on tap for hurricane prep, Energy Star appliances
May 18, 2014: Rich, poor, middle class: Where are you on the income scale?
May 12, 2014: IRS getting sneakier in tracking tax cheats
May 2, 2014: Representatives, Senators fall over each other in rush to ban bonuses to IRS employees who owe federal taxes
April 27, 2014: Property taxes pose burdens, predatory loan possibilities
April 19, 2014: Some of VP Joe Biden's Social Security is taxed. Is yours?
April 12, 2014: State taxpayers are big e-filing fans, too
April 6, 2014: 3 popular refundable tax credits: Are they worth it?
March 29, 2014: Tax scams ramp up as filing deadline nears
March 21, 2014: Bet on it, IRS missing out on many NCAA basketball wagers
March 18, 2014: College bowl tax audits and Colorado pot taxes
March 10, 2014: Filing season 2014: Death, taxes, root canals and refunds
Feb. 28, 2014: Ways and Means chair says his tax reform plan not DOA
Feb. 22, 2014: Olympic tax break effort in Illinois
Feb. 15, 2014: Don't call us, says the IRS. Go online instead for tax help
Feb. 8, 2014: Are tax refunds at risk as we teeter on debt ceiling ledge?
Feb. 3, 2014: Bitcoin taxes and winter weather write-offs
Jan. 25, 2014: Don't miss out on the tax deduction for charitable donations
Jan. 18, 2014: Obamacare tax credit e tax credit upheld by court.
How much can you get?
Jan. 12, 2014: Important January tax dates, deadlines
Jan. 4, 2014: Amazon now collecting sales taxes in 19 states

You also can find links to the most recent Bankrate posts (and the RSS feed) over there in the right column of the ol' blog. Just scroll down a bit.

If you are really hankering for more tax bloggings, you can peruse the archive of 2011, 2012 and 2013 posts at my other tax blog. Wow, I have been rambling on all over the place for quite a while!

There's also a link to my original Bankrate tax blog, Eye on the IRS, as well as one to Don't Mess With Taxes posts in which I reference my other tax blog(s).

Thanks again for reading, here and there!

Today's Tax Tip

Sept. 30 is deadline to avoid COVID-related late filing penalty — The IRS is refunding penalties charged on 2019 and 2020 tax returns that were filed late due to COVID pandemic problems. It also will waive the penalty for those tax years' COVID-delated returns not yet filed, as long as the 1040s are submitted by Sept. 30. (Sept. 26, 2022)
The 2022 Tax Tips offer ways to file your annual return, along with post-filing advice, important tax news and, of course, ways to cut your current tax year bill. You'll find the monthly assemblages on their own respective pages: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. Remember, tax tasks and tips don't stop after you file your annual return!

COVID-19 & Taxes

Coronavirus has wreaked havoc
on the 2020 and 2021 tax seasons.
These three Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes pages have details:
March-July 2020,
August-December 2020,
January-December 2021, and
January-… 2022
You can find medical coronavirus resource links further down this column.

All About Kay

OK, some about Kay

Kay Bell — Native Texan (the blog title totally makes sense now, right?). Professional journalist. Tax geek.

My Other Accounts

*************

Tick ... Tick ... Tick

Tax Season 2022 continues!

Tax Day 2022 is finally over … unless you're one of the millions who have more time to file — looking at you taxpayers abroad and those in major disaster areas — or you got an extension to file your 2021 tax year return. That's fine. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service appreciates some of us spreading out our filings, especially when we and the agency still are dealing with all the complications of COVID-19 and taxes.

That's why the ol' blog's focus now is on all y'all still working on returns. But I haven't forgotten my organized taxpayer readers, who are already looking for ways to reduce their 2022 tax year bills. Yep, that amount is adding up, but there are moves you can make. The monthly tips and reminders a little further down this column can help everyone, regardless of which tax year you're working on.

Those on extension should keep a keen eye on the countdown clock below. It will help you track the days tick, tick, ticking off toward that absolutely final fall filing due date of Oct. 17. Yep, it's a few days later this year.
Note: I'm in the Central Time Zone, so adjust accordingly for where you live.

Time for Tax Tasks

Hello 🍂 September
After heat waves and droughts across the United States, we cheer the arrival of this ninth month of the year, which officially brings us Autumn.

via GIPHY

Fall's cooler (we hope!) temperatures offer us some respite from 2022's extraordinarily hot summer. But Fall doesn't mean we can fall down when it comes to tax tasks. So here are some September Tax Moves to make in the next 30 days.

Sept. 1: Today is Meteorological Fall, the three months from Sept. 1 through Nov. 30 when days get shorter and cooler, but not cold. It's also the start of the Internal Revenue Service's National Preparedness Month. The 2022 Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico hurricane season has been hurricane season has been unexpectedly quiet, but that's not likely to last.

So take advantage of this likely temporary tropical lull and get ready for the rest of the official hurricane season, which runs through the end of Meteorological Fall on Nov. 30. The countdown clock below can help you keep track of how many more days you have to worry about tracking any size or type of tropical storms.

Even if Uncle Sam's official forecasters at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center are wrong and the season doesn't bring their predicted 21 named storms, remember that it only takes one to wreak havoc. So if you haven't yet prepared — physically, financially, and tax wise — it's time to do so.

The ol' blog's special Storm Warnings pages also can help, whether you're preparing for, recovering from, or helping those who sustain damages from the many ways that that weather goes wild. That includes claiming uninsured losses from a major natural disaster as an itemized tax deduction.

Sept. 5: Happy Labor Day! This celebration of workers' contributions is a federal holiday and day off for many.

via GIPHY

After two years of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, many workplaces have move back full in-person office work. job sites. But the lingering effects of hybrid — some days working from home, others at the office — could produce some tax complications for workers. One of them is the unwelcome realization that as employees, their home office is not tax deductible.

Sept. 12: If your job is as a server at a restaurant, or at any other establishment where gratuities from customers is part of your compensation, don't forget that those tips are taxable income.

Whether you're dining in or getting food delivered to your home, if a tip isn't included on your restaurant or delivery bill, click the image above to calculate how much to tip the person who brought it to you.

Today is a key day for workers who regularly get tips as part of their jobs. If you worked at least some of August and got at least $20 in gratuities, you need to account for them today by using Form 4070 to report that month's tips total to your employer.

Sept. 22: Fall officially arrives today with the Autumnal Equinox at 9:04 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Adjust for your time zone, since the equinox occurs at the same moment worldwide. It's also a godo day to think about home maintenance that will help you weather the coming colder weather. The recently enacted Inflation Relief Act includes extension of and tax breaks for some energy saving home upgrades. While making any necessary repairs, also consider home improvements that could increase your home's basis and guarantee you won't owe any capital gains tax on your eventual residential sale profit.

Sept. 30: It's the last day of September. That means if you got an extension back in April to file your tax return, that new Oct. 17 deadline is just weeks away. Don't wait until the very last minute. Get to work on your tax paperwork now and be done with it.

The easiest way to do so is electronically. Check out ways to e-file at no cost, including via Free File, which is, as its name says, free. The official electronic filing webpage is Free File on IRS.gov is available to qualifying taxpayers until midnight, Eastern Time, on Oct. 17.

Free File this year is available for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is $73,000 or less. That income level applies to all filing statuses. This year, 8 software programs are available to eligible filers.

Small Business Tax Calendar: Important filing, deposit and record keeping dates throughout the year that your company needs to know. You can get more tax calendar information at the IRS' online calendar page and view the full year's important business and individual tax dates in IRS Pub. 509.

State Tax Help

Don't forget your state taxes!
Forty-three states and D.C. collect personal income taxes. But even if you live in of the seven states without an income levy, you still face other state (and local) taxes.

State Tax Departments provides links to your state's Web page. The companion page, Tax Tidbits, is the compilation of blurbs about each state's tax laws. And for more state tax news, check out all our state tax bloggings.

Tax Forms

Thanks to our increased use of tax preparers and computer software, many of us don't see our tax forms until we sign and file them. But knowing what's on these documents, either in paper or digital form, and why the IRS wants it is key to understanding our tax system. And knowledge definitely is power, especially when it comes to tax savings. Find this valuable information in the ol' blog's special Talking Tax Forms page.

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Kudos Et Cetera

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I gotta tell ya ...

AKA Disclaimer:
I am a professional journalist who has been covering tax issues since 1999.
I am not a professional tax preparer.
The content on Don't Mess With Taxes is my personal opinion based on my study and understanding of tax laws, policies and regulations. It is provided for your private, noncommercial, educational and informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation of any specific tax action(s) you should or should not take. Similarly, mentions of products or services are not endorsements. In other words, my ramblings on the ol' blog are free advice and you know what they say about getting what you pay for. That's why when it comes to filing your taxes, I urge you to get additional, professional, paid-for guidance from an accountant, Enrolled Agent or other qualified tax preparer who is familiar with your individual tax circumstances.

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September 2022

Tell it to the Hill

While it's easy to rail at the IRS, for the most part we can thank — or blame — our tax laws on Congress and the White House. So if you have an issue with tax legislation or want a tax bill passed, you need to let your federal legislators and the White House occupant know of your concerns. You can find out who in Washington, D.C., to contact (and how), as well as get information on your local lawmakers for matters, tax or otherwise, closer to home, at USA Gov.

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