Tax debt help where to find it

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Are you in debt? Is the Internal Revenue Service breathing down your neck and threatening your livelihood? Do not be overwhelmed by tax debt as there are ways for you to solve your tax debt problems and keep the tax collector far away. Read on for some helpful advice.

A Little Bit of Equity. If you own your home, you could have a significant amount of equity in it, especially if you have lived in it for more than five years. Through your bank or similar lending institution you can apply for an equity line of credit or equity loan. Just with this amount of borrowed money, you may be able to obtain enough funds to cover your tax debt and penalties. Current rates are still low – shop the internet for the plan that is right for you.

Sell Some Valuables. Your antique desk or chair, stamp collection, jewelry, or even an extra car may have considerable cash value to it. Turn what you own into cash; get on eBay to post your item[s] and to obtain multiple bids on what you are attempting to sell.

Friends and Family Plan. Swallow your pride and ask trusted family members and friends for help. To keep everyone happy, only accept money if a contract outlining explicit repayments terms is used. Check the internet for sample forms.

Get in Touch with the I. R.S. Talk about making a deal with the devil! Seriously, if you owe the Internal Revenue Service money and you cannot pay them back, contact them directly to arrange a repayment plan that works for you. No, they won’t forgive your tax debt, but they can spread out repayment over an acceptable timeframe. Just remember this: any unpaid balance will incur interest charges and further late payments by you will likely involve additional penalties. Read all the “legalese” before signing anything!

Finding tax debt help is the first step in tackling your problem. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away and may worsen an already bad situation.

Once you have a plan in place, contact your county’s consumer affairs division for free debt counseling. Chances are your tax debt problem is only the tip of the iceberg and further help will be necessary to educated you on how to avoid future mistakes.

Tax traps for new real estate investors

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Perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised that new real estate investors fall into the same tax traps again and again. Real estate burdens investors—especially new investors—with some tricky tax accounting.

But just because some other newbie makes these mistakes, that doesn’t mean you need to. You just need to know where the traps are so you avoid them. And here are the biggest real estate tax traps you don’t want to fall into:

Tax Trap 1: Passive Loss Limitation

On paper at least, real estate often loses money. Even if the rent pays the mortgage and the operating expenses, the books still show a loss because you get to write off a portion of the purchase price through depreciation each year.
If a rental house that cost $275,000 breaks even on cash flow, for example, you might also get a $10,000 annual depreciation deduction. If your marginal tax rate is 28%, that depreciation should save you $2800 annually.

Sounds sweet, right? Well, it is—or should be. Except that the U. S. Congress labeled real estate investment a passive activity and said that, except in a couple of special circumstances, you can’t write off passive activity deductions unless overall you show positive passive income.

This passive loss limitation rule means that many real estate investors don’t get to use tax
saving deductions from real estate—or least not annually.

Two loopholes, courtesy of Congress, do exist that let you write off deductions from real estate even if overall you show a loss from real estate investing. If you’re an active real estate investor with adjusted gross income below $100,000, you can write off up to $25,000 of passive losses annually. (If your income is between $100,000 and $150,000, you get to write off a percentage of the $25,000. Ask your tax advisor for the details.)

Here’s the second loophole: If you’re a real estate professional, Congress says the passive loss limitation rule doesn’t apply to you when it comes to real estate. A real estate professional, by the way, is not someone who’s licensed as an agent or broker. The law instead creates a time-based test: A real estate professional is someone who spends at least 750 hours a year and more than 50% of their time working as a real estate agent, broker, property manager or developer.

Tax Trap 2: Capitalization of Improvements

The next mistake that new real estate investors make? Thinking they can write off the amounts they spend to improve the property. Sometimes you can. Often you can’t.
Here’s why: Any expenditure that increases the life of the property or improves its utility needs to be depreciated over the next 27.5 years (if the property is residential) or over 39 years (if the property is nonresidential).

You can’t, therefore, write off the money spent improving or renovating a house—except through depreciation.

I’ve seen new real estate investors in tears about this wrinkle. Some investor draws, say, $20,000 from his IRA or 401(k) to fix up some rental. He figures he’ll be able to write off the $20,000 as a tax deduction in the year improvements are made.

No way. Instead, he’ll have to write off the $20,000 at the rate of a few hundred bucks a year over the next three or four decades.

The trick with renovation—if you want to call it that—is to keep the property well maintained as you go. Repainting, new carpeting, general repairs—these items should all be all deductions in the year of expenditure (er, subject to the passive loss limitation rule discussed as the first tax trap.)

Tax Trap 3: Missing the Section 121 Exclusion

Here’s the final tear-jerker. And I see it several times a year. Someone decides that rather than sell their principal residence when they “move up” to a larger new home, they’re going to turn the original home into a rental.

This is a disastrous decision most of the time because of Section 121 of the Internal Revenue Code . Section 121 says that if you’ve owned a home and lived in a home for at least two of the last years, you won’t pay any tax on the first $250,000 of gain on the sale ($500,000 of gain in the case of someone who’s married and filing a joint return).
By converting a principal residence to a rental property, you turn tax-free gain into taxable gain if you don’t sell the property in the first three years.

Two quick notes about goofing up the Section 121 exclusion. If you don’t have appreciation in your old principal residence, you’re not losing any Section 121 benefit by converting to a rental.

Second, if you do have a lot of appreciation in your old principal residence and want to use that equity to acquire a rental property, consider this: Sell the old principal residence when you move out so the gain is excluded from taxable income. Then use the tax-free proceeds to purchase another rental—perhaps even the house next door.

Donating cars to charity - new tax rules

On June 3, 2005, the IRS released guidance on charitable deductions for donated vehicles. The American Jobs Creation Act (AJCA) radically changed the amount of the deduction taxpayers can claim for their donated car.

Fair Market Value v. Actual Sales Price

When donating a car to charity, a taxpayer traditionally was allowed to deduct the fair market value. The new law changes this valuation to the actual sales price of the vehicle when sold by the charity. The taxpayer is also required to get written and timely acknowledgment from the charity in order to claim the deduction

The AJCA does provide some limited exceptions under which a donor may claim a fair market value deduction. If the charity makes a significant intervening use of a vehicle--such as regular use to deliver meals on wheels-- the donor may deduct the full fair market value. For example, driving a vehicle a total of 10,000 miles over a one-year period to deliver meals is a significant intervening use.

The AJCA also allows a donor to claim a fair market value deduction if the charity makes a material improvement to the vehicle. Under the guidance, a material improvement means major repairs that significantly increase the value of a vehicle, and not mere painting or cleaning.

Interestingly, the IRS has also added an exemption not included in the AJCA. On its own, the IRS has determined that taxpayers can claim a deduction for the fair market value of a donated vehicle if the charity gives or sells the vehicle at a significantly below-market price to a needy individual, as long as the transfer furthers the charitable purpose of helping a poor person in need of a means of transportation.

If you intend to assert one of these exemptions, how do you determine the fair market value? Generally, vehicle pricing guidelines and publications differentiate between trade-in, private-party, and dealer retail prices. The IRS consider the fair market value for vehicle donation purposes to be no higher than the private-party price.

The new provisions of the Americans Job Creation Act certainly make it less attractive to donate a car to charity. Using the exemptions, however, you can still create a sizeable deduction while helping others who are less fortunate.

Your auction business taxes

Taxes is an issue when running an Auction Business. But is there a grey line when it comes to declaring it?

It's really within reason if you're going to do a huge amount of it, a small amount is negligible.

Some people want to have a small business for write-offs, you might want to consider taking it to the next level and be able to write off some of your expenses like your computer, office space, supplies, etc.

Each state and each province has their own amount of sales you can do without declaring, & charging taxes. Check with your state to see what amount you have to do before you start taking taxes.

The BC goverment (where I live) gives you an allowance of $30,000 before you have to charge for sales tax, that's for someone who legally has a business.

There's definate advantages of having a business license, declaring your income and being able to have write-offs. That being said, legally you have to declare taxes if you're profiting from it.

Are You Holding Onto Too Much Product?

We all love to make money but after a while when you get too much product built up, you can start losing money. Why would we do that?

What happens is we get in a mindset on the value we feel our items are worth verses, what we can get for them. That's why when purchasing items it's important to keep in mind that you make money when you buy, Not - When you Sell.

But we also get into the territory where you feel you should get a certain price for something. And that's what we need to shake.... immediately.

You need to be watching your products and if something isn't pulling in the money anymore, you need to blow it out. Product on the shelves is not money in your pocket.... it's out of your pocket.

When we relate this to your eBay business, the same goes for what you have in your eBay store. Keep it fresh and alive. Have special offers, only for those who are buying an auction AND a store item.

Make it something that they want and give them a deal. Blowout product that you've had for too long. This will give you money up right away and gets you product you can actually do well with.

So, get out of the mind frame that to you need to make "X" amount from certain products, if they're not pulling it in, then "X" them out and move onto newer hotter products!

Why do i need a tax attorney

It is unfortunate but true, that many people do not even consider consulting a tax attorney until they open their mailboxes one day and there is that dreaded letter from the IRS. A tax attorney is a lawyer that specializes in all areas of taxes. The tax attorney is required to attend law school for one to three more years, after regular law school, to receive their Masters in taxation.

The IRS has its own group of experienced tax attorneys, so if there is ever a time when you need to face the IRS for any reason, it is imperative that you have your own tax attorney with you. A tax attorney has all the tools and means necessary to handle any tax matters that come up during any tax disputes or issues.

If you have been contacted by the IRS and are looking to retain the services of a tax attorney, there are certain things to keep in mind when looking for the right one.

First, you need to choose a tax attorney that has extensive knowledge and experience in all areas of taxation. This means your chosen tax attorney should be up to date on all tax regulations, laws, recent and past tax court cases, recent and past tax rulings, appeal procedures, audit procedures, tax litigation and collection.

You should also look for business knowledge when considering a tax attorney. Your tax attorney should have a good deal of knowledge when it comes to business accounting. He or she should have the experience and training in financial areas in order to understand your case fully. Your tax attorney should also have a working knowledge of many other legal areas, such as bankruptcy, agency law and contract law. Your tax attorney should have a good deal of legal knowledge in order to recognize any issues that could be deemed criminal in nature.

Finally, you need a tax attorney that has skills in negotiation and litigation as well. If you need to take on the IRS, you will need a tax attorney that can negotiate settlements and be at your side if you do need to go to Tax Court, if the IRS accuses you of a of tax crime. Dealing with the IRS can be a long, hard and demeaning process. It is imperative that you have a reputable, knowledgeable tax attorney at your side during the ordeal.

Your tax attorney will have full working knowledge about all aspects of the tax laws and what the IRS legally can and cannot do during the process. He or she can advise you on your rights if the IRS happens to break the law during any part of your dealings with that agency.

Disclaimer: The information presented here should not be interpreted as legal or tax advice. If you need legal or tax advice, please seek professional advice from a qualified tax attorney for your best options.