Taxes - My Tax Return

If you are under full retirement age for the entire year, SSA deducts $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit. For 2012, that limit is $14,640 ($14,160 in 2011).
In the year you reach full retirement age, SSA deducts $1 in benefits for every $3 you earn above a different limit, but we only count earnings before the month you reach your full retirement age. If you will reach full retirement age in 2012, the limit on your earnings for the months before full retirement age is$38,880 ($37,680 in 2011).
(If you were born in 1945 or 1946, your full retirement age is 66 years.). Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, you can get your benefits with no limit on your earnings.

The Foreign Per Diem Rates are available on the Internet at: http://www.state.gov/www/perdiems/.

Federal and state agencies refer to the IRS the names and social security numbers of taxpayers who are behind in their support payments, taxes, and loans. Your federal tax refund may not be refunded to you if you are delinquent in child support payments or you have a past due federal debt such as a student loan. Your refund may be used to pay other debts you owe.

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.

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.

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.