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Reporting foreign income and filing a tax return when living abroad

U.S. citizen and resident aliens living abroad should know their tax obligations. Their worldwide income — including wages, unearned income and tips — is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where they live or where they earn their income. They also have the same income tax filing requirements as U.S. citizens or resident aliens […]

Dirty Dozen: Watch out for scammers using email and text messages to try tricking people during tax season

Email and text scams are relentless, and scammers frequently use tax season as a way of tricking people. With people anxious to receive the latest information about a refund or other tax issue, scammers will regularly pose as the IRS, a state tax agency or others in the tax industry in emails and texts. Phish […]

Gig economy earnings are taxable

Generally, income earned from the gig economy is taxable and must be reported to the IRS on tax returns. The gig economy is activity where people earn income providing on demand work, services or goods, such as selling goods online, driving a car for deliveries or renting out property. Often, it’s through a digital platform […]

Here are the different ways people can pay their federal taxes

The April 18 deadline for individuals to file and pay their federal income tax is just around the corner. While paying taxes is not optional, the IRS offers a variety of ways for people to pay their taxes. Some taxpayers must make quarterly estimated tax payments throughout the year. This includes sole proprietors, partners, and […]

Reasons why some tax refunds filed electronically take longer than 21 days

Different factors can affect the timing of a refund after the IRS receives a return. A manual review may be necessary when a return has errors, is incomplete or is affected by identity theft or fraud. Other returns can also take longer to process, including when a return needs a correction to Child Tax Credit […]

IRS to recalculate taxes on unemployment benefits; refunds to start in May

To help taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service announced today that it will take steps to automatically refund money this spring and summer to people who filed their tax return reporting unemployment compensation before the recent changes made by the American Rescue Plan. The legislation, signed on March 11, allows taxpayers who earned less than $150,000 […]

IRS begins delivering third round of Economic Impact Payments to Americans

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service announced today that the third round of Economic Impact Payments will begin reaching Americans over the next week. Following approval of the American Rescue Plan Act, the first batch of payments will be sent by direct deposit, which some recipients will start receiving as early as this Additional batches […]

Third Stimulus Package

On March 11, 2021, the third COVID stimulus package was signed into law, including direct payments. The IRS emphasizes that there is no action required by eligible individuals to receive this third payment. Payments are automatic. Additional information related to eligibility or timing of these payments has not been made available. Who qualifies for this […]

Pending Legislation

The president is expected to sign a bill this week which will provide relief for the continued impact of COVID-19. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 extends unemployment benefits, provides funding for state and local governments, supports vaccine rollouts, expands the child tax credit, makes a portion of unemployment compensation nontaxable for certain filers, […]

Tax Time Guide: Select a tax return preparer with care

The Internal Revenue Service today reminded taxpayers to choose a tax return preparer with care. Even though the vast majority of tax return preparers provide honest, quality service, some cause great harm through fraud, identity theft and other scams every year. It’s very important to select the right tax professional. After all, people trust them […]