The proposed Taxpayer Service Standards legislation before the U.S. House and U.S. Senate will protect Americans from tax return preparers who do not meet basic standards of competency, training or ethics. Consumer groups have banded together to urge the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Ways & Means Committee to support S. 1192/H.R. 3330…
While a gargantuan number of Americans handle their finances reasonably well, there are 10 dollar destroyers floating around, wherein some consumers fall victim to their own personal financial mismanagement or find themselves in circumstances possibly out of their control. The secret to successfully navigating around these ten hazards to the health of your wealth is…
Navigating the money maze of life is not getting any easier for nearly all families across the U.S.A. Most working taxpayers received little or no relief under last year’s “Tax Cut & Jobs Act” except for a slight bump in weekly paychecks and maybe, if lucky, a few extra greenbacks in an annual tax refund.…
If you have a two-year old debt with the IRS you might be getting a letter from the IRS about your account being transferred to a private debt collector. This new program only applies to taxpayers who have had an IRS debt for years and who were previously contacted about it by the IRS. Here’s…
Roughly one in six Americans, especially Millennial men ages 18-34, would rather get a root canal than do their taxes. More than one in three Americans feel that filing taxes is worse than having to floss. LifeLock, a Symantec company, shared findings from its recent survey conducted online by Harris Poll which found nearly a…
New research shows 25% of Americans who expect to receive a tax refund in 2017 plan to make a major purchase before receiving the money. This percentage rises to 36% for millennials ages 18 to 34, and to 40% for Gen Xers ages 35 to 44. According to IRS data, Americans qualifying for refunds received…
The average tax refund of nearly $3,000 is in the works for 70% of Americans, but be careful how you manage your incoming stash. The American Bankers Association stressed the importance of low-income workers filing a tax return—even if their incomes are too low to trigger any federal tax liability—in order to claim the Earned…
A new law required the IRS to delay issuing refunds for certain taxpayers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit. The IRS is now issuing refunds for those consumers impacted, but has warned consumers that they should not count on seeing their refund until the week of February 27. This delay is…
Tax refund season is the best time to add real octane to your savings account. According to a 2016 report from the Federal Reserve Bank, 46% of consumers indicated that they either could not pay for an emergency expense of $400, or would need to borrow or sell something to do so. You can…
A calculator for a mortgage may get you real excited by computing you can afford more home than you ever expected. To get a true estimate of what you can afford requires pulling out pen & paper, grabbing a calculator, and doing some research. A mortgage is a loan that allows you to borrow money…
