There has been a lot of political talk lately about no longer taxing Social Security payments. (Like they promised when it was created back in the Roosevelt administration.)

Last week, a dozen GOP lawmakers introduced the Fair Tax Act of 2025. The bill proposes to abolish the IRS and repeal all personal and corporate income taxes, the death tax, gift tax, and payroll tax.

The IRS has set its sites on millions of people who enjoy gambling: the huge gap between tax collections and people reporting them on their tax returns. Those unreported winnings ad up to a whopping  $13.2 billion. 

When the tax laws changed in 2018, most people no longer had to use the itemized deductions (Schedule A), but found it easier and more beneficial to just use the standard deduction.  Generally, I find that there is a small minority that still itemize.  They usually have a lot of property taxes, large amounts mortgage interest and give a generous amount to charities (such as tithing 10% to their church).

One of the biggest tax pains in the last two decades in the tax preparation world has been when two separated or divorced parents both try to claim the same child - regardless of who had the right to.  You see, the IRS doesn't care what a separation or divorce decree says.  They got tired of reading them to make determinations.   So they came us with the custodial parent rules.

Because they don't trust United States persons resident abroad and green card holders to pay their taxes, the IRS has issued final regulations on required income tax withholding for certain types of retirement distributions. These regulations apply to distributions from deferred compensation plans (such as 401(k)s), IRAs, and commercial annuities.

I'm always amazed each tax season that people don't really know how the profits and losses from stock sales (capital gains) are taxed at the federal level, much less the state level.  Depending on your income, they can be taxed at three different rates: 0%, 15%, or 20%.

The US Supreme Court recently ruled in a case called Polselli v. IRS, that the IRS can sometimes secretly probe bank records without notice to taxpayers. Under an existing statute, the IRS can also without notice request and examine bank records of people who don't even owe it money - like friends, family, and associates of a taxpayer who does owe the IRS.

This dispute began when a taxpayer (Remo Polselli) owed more than $2 million in taxes to the IRS.

The Internal Revenue Service announced today the annual inflation adjustments for tax year 2025 - in case you are planning how much money you have to hand over for them to waste next year.

Notable changes for tax year 2025

The tax year 2025 adjustments described below generally apply to income tax returns to be filed starting tax season 2026. The tax items for tax year 2025 of greatest interest to many taxpayers include the following dollar amounts:

As the year winds down, it's time to start thinking about preparing your finances for the end of the year. QuickBooks, a popular accounting software, can be a valuable tool in this process. In this blog post, we'll explore how QuickBooks can help you organize your financial records, track your income and expenses, and ensure that you're ready for tax season.

One of subjects that seems to come up when doing people's taxes and I see that they have changed jobs that had retirement plans is: What did you do with your retirement plan at your previous employer?

I have also found it amazing how many people have not even thought about it, or know what their options are.  So, here is a short primer on your options.

#1 - 401(k) rollover: Keep you savings with your previous employer's plan