Personal Taxes

If you use a dwelling as a home and rent it for fewer than 15 days during the year you should not report any of the rental income and do not deduct any expenses as rental expenses on IRS Schedule E. You may deduct the mortgage interest and property taxes on IRS Schedule A.

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.

Yes. Amounts you paid to an appraiser for determining your casualty loss are deductible as a miscellaneous itemized deduction on IRS Schedule A subject to the 2% MAGI limitation.

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.

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.

There is no minimum payment period.
Recapture of alimony amounts may apply where payments decrease by more than $15,000 within the first three years of the divorce.

Talk to Taxpayer Advocate. The Taxpayer Advocate Service is an independent organization within the IRS. They help taxpayers whose problems with the IRS are causing financial difficulties; who have tried but have not been able to resolve their problems with the IRS; and those who believe an IRS system or procedure is not working as it should.. You can call your local advocate, whose number is in your phone book, or via the Internet at Taxpayer Advocate Service – at www.irs.gov/advocate or You can also call 1-877-777-4778 . Call or write to the IRS. Keep records of all of your attempts to contact an agent. Fill out IRS Form 911 if you cannot resolve conflict or find resolution through an IRS agent. File a complaint with the Inspector General if you need to report cases of fraud or corruption by an IRS employee.