It’s not unusual, especially here in Texas, for undocumented workers to be employed in industries that depend on manual labor, such as agriculture or construction. (Photo by Zohair Mirza on Unsplash) “They’re eating the dogs” is now forever part of U.S. presidential campaign lore, for worse or worst since there’s no better take. Following Donald J. Trump’s exclamation of a false social media rumor of pet deaths in Springfield, Ohio, during his Sept. 10 debate last week with Kamala Harris, the municipality about half an hour northeast of Dayton has encountered much unwanted attention. It has included bomb threats to... Read more →
State/Local
Americans have always been a peripatetic group. And we relocate for many reasons. Jobs are a big move motivator. Some people want to be closer to (or farther from) their families. Weather also prompts people to relocate. So do taxes. “For many years, policymakers, journalists, and taxpayers have debated the role state tax policy plays in individuals’ and businesses’ location decisions,” writes Andrey Yushkov, a Senior Policy Analyst with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation, at the tax policy nonprofit’s website. The Tax Foundation has analyzed annual data about who is moving — and where —... Read more →
Boo! No, it’s not Halloween yet, but today is just as scary for some. They suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia, the fear of Friday the 13th. Fear also is often associated with taxes. With another tax deadline on Monday — the Sept. 16 due date for the third estimated tax payment of the 2024 tax year — today is a good time to acknowledge, and start to overcome the associated fears of, some scary tax misinformation that just won't go away. Here are 13 tax misperceptions that once you know them and the right tax moves to make, you can become a... Read more →
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk The Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today announced cities, counties, transit systems, and special purpose districts soon will be getting their share of $1.1 billion in local sales tax allocations for September. That's 6.3 percent more than last September. Sales taxes are one of the three major ways states and the assorted jurisdictions within their borders get revenue. The other two are property taxes, mostly on real estate value, and income earned by individuals and businesses. Since the Lone Star State has no personal income tax, most of us residents are resigned to generally high sales and... Read more →
Updated Friday, Sept. 13, 2024 UPDATE, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024: The IRS today announced tax relief, including a Feb. 3, 2025, deadline for estimated tax and other filings and payments for all Louisiana residents after Hurricane Francine made landfall there this week as a category 2 storm. Details in post below. Sept. 16 is not the estimated tax deadline for certain filers in 18 19 states (see update above) and two U.S. territories. These individual and business taxpayers are in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) major disaster areas. Some now have a Nov. 1 due date. Others have until Feb.... Read more →
Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. Maryland, where the hubby and I spent our first married years, is our adopted second home. It's also home of wildlife areas like the Jug Bay tidal wetlands pictured above that we frequently visited to watch birds and wildlife. Now, the Old Line State also will be part of the IRS Direct File program. (Photo of Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary by Kevans27 via Wikipedia Commons) The Internal Revenue Service continues to make progress in getting states to sign up for Direct File, the agency’s... Read more →
However, opponents of the Internal Revenue Service's option that cuts out private tax software companies still aren't convinced of the program's value or security. UPDATE, Sept. 5, 2025: Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. Two more states will be a part of the Internal Revenue Service’s Direct File program next year. When the 2025 filing season starts, more than 120,000 Maine and 600,000 Wisconsin taxpayers and will be eligible to file via the IRS created and managed free, online tax preparation and e-filing option. The potential Pine Tree State and... Read more →
When making retirement plans, be sure to include how taxes might affect your ability to spend your golden years the way you want. Taxation of Social Security is getting a closer look this year, mainly because the Republican presidential nominee has suggested ending the current federal tax paid by some retirees on up to 85 percent of their benefits. A handful of states also tax the federal retirement benefits that their residents receive. This is the case in Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia. Those nine Social Security taxing states are this weekend’s... Read more →
A few years ago, when housing prices here in Austin kept climbing, the hubby and I hired a company to protest our annual real estate appraisal. That assessment is used to calculate just how big our property tax bill will be. Other factors, such as local tax rates and certain exemptions, also come into play. But if your house is deemed to be worth a whole lot of money, and you’re not planning on selling it for or near that amount, then a generous appraisal will cost you property tax dollars. So, we hired a firm with time and experience... Read more →
UPDATE, Aug. 29, 2024: The U.S. collection of Caribbean islands joins its fellow territory Puerto Rico in getting tax relief due to Tropical Storm Ernesto effects. It also ups the count to 10 of disaster areas across the country that have the new extended, early 2025 tax return due date. The satellite view, courtesy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's NESDIS/STAR GOES-East imagery, of Tropical Storm Ernesto as it approached the U.S. Virgin Islands late afternoon Aug. 13. As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues its disaster evaluations, the areas eligible for tax relief, and a new filing deadline of... Read more →
UPDATE, Sept. 5, 2025: Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. State participation in the Internal Revenue Service’s Direct File slowly keeps growing. Connecticut and North Carolina are the latest states that will allow some of their taxpayers to use the IRS’ direct tax preparation and e-filing online program next year. They join New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, and Pennsylvania as new participants during the 2025 tax filing season. Twelve states — Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. — were part... Read more →
Yes, alligators, like this one enjoying an open water area of the everglades, are as much a cliché as Florida man escapades. But a gator seemed a good emblem for the IRS' persistence in going after a Florida man who evaded millions in taxes for around two decades. (Photo by Kay Bell) This Florida man story is much more serious that the Sunshine State memes you tend to see online. Aug. 13, Roger Whitman pleaded guilty to evading more than $2.4 million in taxes on income he earned from his business. The 76-year-old Ormond Beach, Florida, man’s business was manufacturing... Read more →
A full Cannon River rushing though Northfield, Minnesota, after rainfall from severe storms in June. (National Weather Service photo) It’s been that kind of weather year. The start of a new week brings another Internal Revenue Service announcement of disaster area tax relief. This time, the areas getting special tax consideration were hard hit by severe storms and subsequent flooding in Minnesota. The affected North Star State individual and business taxpayers now have until Feb. 3, 2025, to meet a variety of filing and payment obligations. Affected counties: The destructive weather throughout Minnesota began June 16, and produced damages in... Read more →
The Department of Justice, per a Drug Enforcement Administration request, is moving to transfer of marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III. That decision aligns with the stance of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, and is supported by the Biden Administration. The change would not make cannabis legal nationally. It still will be a controlled substance under federal law. But the recategorization would provide state-legal cannabis businesses some banking access, and the ability to claim some tax breaks they currently are denied. Less of a stigma: Going from Schedule I to Schedule... Read more →
Update, Tuesday, August 13, 2024 — Hurricane Debby has finally moved out of the United States, but her trek from Florida’s Gulf Coast, back into the Atlantic, then up the Eastern Seaboard was incredibly destructive. Remnants of Debby were still causing problems when the Internal Revenue Service on Aug. 9 announced tax relief for individuals and businesses in Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. Today, the IRS added all of Vermont to its Hurricane Debby tax relief list. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service/National Hurricane Center graphic Hurricane Debby is a prime example of how the lowest hurricane... Read more →
We had the second U.S. landfall of the 2024 hurricane season today, and federal disaster (and tax) relief is likely to be announced soon. Meanwhile, those who earlier were in the paths of an angry Mother Nature outburst already are facing new tax deadlines, starting with the one this week for those who endured the fires on Maui and Hawai'i's Big Island. The horrific aftermath of the wildfire that destroyed the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina on Maui last August. (Photo by U.S. Civil Air Patrol via Wikimedia Commons) Hurricane Debby made landfall as a category 1 early Monday, Aug.... Read more →
UPDATE, Sept. 5, 2025: Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. Two more states, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, joined Direct File last week. Direct File is the Internal Revenue Service created no-cost online tax preparation program. Eligible taxpayers can use it prepare and then e-file their annual tax returns for free. It is similar to Free File, the IRS partnership with some in the tax software industry, but Direct File cuts out the private sector and allows taxpayers to take care of filing directly with Uncle Sam. When Direct File launched... Read more →
August is the month that brings us the sunsetting of summer. But amid the season's waning days, find some time to take care of some tax tasks. (Photo by Kay Bell) It’s August. Already! How did this final summer month sneak up on us, or at least on me? Maybe it was all the other distractions. The presidential campaign has been unusual, to say the least. The Paris Olympics kicked off with a controversial opening ceremony (I loved it!), and still have more than a week to go. Then there’s the unrelenting heat wave across the United States. And, of... Read more →
UPDATE, Sept. 5, 2025: Has your state joined Direct File? Check out this special Direct File 2025 Participating States page. GOP members of congress and the Internal Revenue Service are on a collision course when it comes to the agency’s Direct File program. Republican Reps. Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Chuck Edwards of North Carolina last week introduced legislation to block the IRS from continuing its Direct File program. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department also announced last week that another state has joined the Direct File program for the coming 2025 filing season. New Jersey is the latest jurisdiction to allow... Read more →
UPDATE, Aug. 2, 2024: The The Internal Revenue Service also has granted the delayed Feb. 3, 2025, deadline to taxpayers in separate disaster areas in Kentucky and Missouri. Tax relief for Kentucky applies to those in 58 Blue Grass State counties who were affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, landslides, and mudslides that began on May 21. Similar tax relief is provided Missouri residents in 15 Show Me State counties that sustained damages from severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, and flooding that began on May 19. The bold-faced links earlier in this update will take you to the official... Read more →