Personal Taxes

Per the IRs requirements, certain employers must allocate tips if the percentage of tips reported by employees falls below a required minimum percentage of gross sales.
To allocate tips means to assign an additional amount as tip income to each employee whose reported tips are below the required percentage. All tips you receive are taxable.
If you do not have adequate records for your actual tips, you must include the allocated tips shown on your Form W-2 as additional tip income on your tax return Form 1040 line 7.

When you complete Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative Form 2848, you must enter the type of tax, the tax form number, and the year or period(s) for which the power is granted for. You can list returns for any number of specified years or periods that have already ended and returns for years or periods that will end no later than three years from the date the form is signed. A general reference to "all years," "all periods," or "all taxes" is not allowable. Form 2848 will be returned to you for correction if you use these general references.

Special telephone assistance is available during normal business hours for hearing impaired individuals through TDD equipment allowing the hearing impaired person to communicate with a tax assistor in either English or Spanish. The toll-free number for this service is 1-800-829-4059. Also, braille materials for the visually impaired are available at regional libraries that have special services for persons with disabilities.

Effective January 1, 2011, the IRS will require all paid tax preparers who sign federal tax returns to have a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). IRS online registration for tax preparers will start September 1, 2010. Tax preparers will need to register with the IRS and obtain a valid PTIN no later than December 31, 2010. Tax preparers who already have a PTIN will be reissued their current PTIN when they register online. Currently, there is no application fee for PTINs; however, the IRS does plan to charge a PTIN fee (new and renewing applicants) once registration starts September 1, 2010. In addition to the PTIN requirement, paid tax preparers who are not attorneys, certified public accountants or enrolled agents will have to pass an IRS competency exam and complete continuing education requirements. Nonexempt tax preparers will be required to: Obtain a PTIN. Complete 15 hours of continuing education on federal tax laws each year. Renew IRS registration every three years from the date of initial registration. Within three years of initial registration, pass a competency exam from the IRS. Starting January 1, 2011, nonexempt tax preparers who fail to meet the December 31, 2010 registration deadline will have to pass the IRS competency exam before they can be issued a PTIN. Exempt tax preparers (attorneys, certified public accountants and enrolled agents) can still register after December 31, 2010; however, they cannot prepare or sign federal tax returns until they register with the IRS and obtain a valid PTIN.

Yes. A moving expense deduction is permitted in connection with a move outside the US or its possessions. An additional deduction is allowed for foreign moves for reasonable expenses of moving household goods and personal effects to and from storage and of storing them for part or all of the time during which the new place of work abroad continues to be a taxpayers principal place of work.

There are no provisions in the tax law for tax credits or refunds related to reparations for slavery. The IRS is cautioning taxpayers of illegal schemes being offered to the public by rip off artists. You should report these people to the IRS.

In the current year a checkbox on IRS Form 1040 page 2 has been added in place of the special power of attorney form. This will authorize your tax preparer to answer IRS question notices on math errors or missing information.

When both alimony and child support are made together in a monthly payment, it is presumed that child support is paid first. If your husband did not pay the full amount in a month or many months, then you need to pick up as income the difference over the child support amount for that month as alimony and income on your tax return. It is reported on IRS Form 1040, page 1.

The deductible alimony payments made in the first year or second year may have to be recaptured as income in the third year where the alimony payments within the first 3 years decrease by more than $15,000.
Payments made in the second after the separation year are recaptured if the payments exceed the payments in the third post separation year by more than $15,000.
Payments made in the first after the seperation year are recaptured as income if they exceed the "average" payments made in the second post separation year and the third post seperation year by more than $15,000.
The recaptured amount is reported on IRS Form 1040 on the line Alimony received with a notation Alimony recapture with the payee spouses social security number.