Tax & Finances

Daily Prompt: The IRS is Calling

Cute prompt for tax day. “Fret.”  Many are fretting today.  Not really sure why.  As long as you had your withholding done correctly during the year or have been paying your quarterly estimated taxes and self employment tax if you are self employed there should be no problem.  I’m not addressing business owners in this post.  Not really sure why so many wait until this deadline date to “race the clock” sending in their tax payments.

Some of the self employed get behind simply because they are not being responsible or budgeting properly and cannot really even afford to be running their own business or be self employed but try it anyway thinking they can omit expenses they are able ignore for the time being such as tax liabilities.  Some get behind because of unexpected expenses and overhead.  Make your decisions accordingly or your tax liabilities will begin to add up and accrue so many penalties and interest it will be very hard to make things right again.

Forget “pennies on the dollar” because unless you are truly in a hardship situation like dying broke or completely unable to make future payments, the IRS will never accept these offers.  Why should they?  Extenuating circumstances aside, why would anyone think that they should be the exception in paying their fair share of taxes while employed?

You can file for your 6 month extension at this time if you are still waiting for more paperwork for some reason.  There is rarely a reason anyone should file an extension since the extension is only for the filing, never for the tax due.  All payment of any tax is always due on the April 15th, 17th this year, deadline whether you file an extension or not.  If you do not send in full payment by this deadline expect additional penalties and interest to apply.

Be sure to address your various state and local income tax filing laws as well.

 

Daily Prompt: Simple Tax Information

The following is taken in part from my Finances & Taxes page. It offers simple information on filing and what to do if you ever find yourself with any Federal Tax Problem. Since most can be resolved by the taxpayer, this book will walk you through the needed steps to resolution as well as direct you to how to get help from the IRS if they are stonewalling you for any reason. You will be advised as to your rights and how to get the quick resolution you need without paying a third party thousands of dollars to do it for you.

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Taxes

It goes without saying that most of us pay various taxes.  I am going to do an overview of income tax or Federal tax.

We need to file by the same date every year, April 15th unless it falls on some half-baked holiday that DC cooked up a few years ago just to keep things interesting.  You know someone did this just to Mess With The IRS!  I will do a special post each year to advise you on the current due date.  Even if you decide to file a six month extension, you still have to have your taxes paid in full by that April 15th deadline.  This year, 2017, our tax deadline has been moved again to April 18th, a Tuesday.

Please be sure to always stay current on your filing or the IRS can file for you and they will not always be accurate, especially if you are self-employed because you will not be given credit for your expenses.  You can also receive various late filing and paying fines and penalties for being delinquent.

If you are self-employed always keep all your receipts and in an orderly fashion.  Some shove them helter skelter so that it would take forever for you or your accountant to file when you finally decide to and if it’s at the last-minute, time is of the essence.  I still know accountants who allow people to “tell” them what their expenses are without ever producing documents.  Be aware, they will file this for you, because you are paying them to do so but you are the one who will be held liable in any audit for coming up with proof of expenses.  A good accountant would not allow you to do this and would never tell you to “just say” you have a certain amount of expenses that you do not.  Some try to risk it, but you will have to pay back any refund received as well as interest and penalties due.

Filing timely and paying timely and sufficiently are the most important things to remember for everyone, wage earners as well.  Please be sure to fill out your W-4’s correctly when you hire on so that enough withholding is being taken out.  I used to purposely do less withholding to get more back at the end of the year as a “forced savings” for myself.  I got a letter from the IRS telling me not to do this.  They do not appreciate sending refunds, if they can avoid it.  You have to remember this was money they withheld on good faith trusting that the employee filled everything out accurately for their withholding.  There are some that claim way more dependents than they really have so that they can receive more of their money during the year and then play hell trying to pay everything they now owe because of it.  Most that pull this have no intention on paying it back.  They are the delusional that think they can hide from the IRS.  But as I explain in my book “Don’t Mess With The IRS” you can run, but you can’t hide!

I am not going over anything for the small business at this time right here and I would prefer that anyone owning their own business with questions refer to all the information and help that is offered at irs.gov for small business self-employed.

If you ever find yourself with any Federal Tax problem or issue “Don’t Mess With The IRS” has all the information you need to resolve any and all tax problems by yourself.  In almost all cases, you seldom if ever need a tax specialist or third-party to do this for you.  They charge a lot of money and cannot do anything that you can do yourself.  In other words, they may know more than you, right now, but they do not have any special jurisdiction or immunity when it comes to tax resolution than anyone else even if they are certified or licensed in their specific occupation.  That two thousand dollars you pay them, at least because they don’t work cheap, will go to them needlessly instead of being applied to your tax due.  Believe me, it is rare to ever qualify for “pennies on the dollar” or what is known as an Offer in Compromise.

This book takes you through what to do before you call the ACS collection area of the IRS, how to secure legitimate legal representation if needed, what to expect to do to resolve the basic problems most taxpayers have with the IRS and find out all the rights you really do have as a taxpayer.  You cannot play games with them and I don’t show you anything that foolish.  I offer the legal way to resolve your tax problems to your benefit and what to do if your problems are not being resolved timely or properly by the agency.

Daily Prompt: You’re a Winner!

OMG!!

No, seriously, it could not have happened at a better time in my life since I’m about to be evicted by years end, jobless and penniless.  I am so thankful that I finally won a lotto of any kind, since I’ve been buying tickets for many years now.

As an ex employee of the IRS, not sure how you guys got past the whole tax thing, unless this is a billion dollars after tax.

The first thing I’m going to do is pay off this house that I could no longer afford and then give it to a needy vet with some money in a bank account for the first few years until they get settled in.  Then I’m pulling up all the info I have on some folks that I’ve always wanted to help if I get the money.  Some are strangers, some acquaintances, but all with various financial needs like a local woman who died from an accident years ago in Dearborn and she had two small boys she wanted to send to college one day.  There are those in my family that are mentally ill that need to be taken care of.  I would take care of all my family and friends, as well as the local food banks and Christian shelters in the area.

There is a lot of needy people in this world and thank God that someone like me has finally won a lot of money so a lot of good can be done instead of those that waste the money on big houses and fast cars and drugs.  Thank you God in the name of Jesus, I can finally make a difference to many of your other needy people in this world.meface

I hope this isn’t some kind of a Daily Post hoax because I will be despondently disappointed.
And Po’ Girl don’t like being played.

Financial Hardships

Po’ Girl is officially arse-out Po’!

I have just received my discharge in the chapter 7 bankruptcy I was forced to file due to the unexpected loss of my job, which is a very long story, the expiration of my unemployment, the loss of three more part-time jobs and the depletion of my entire life savings.  I now find myself having to live on social security, a lower amount for early application, and the very small pension I managed to accrue with one of the companies I was employed with years ago.  The only reason I even needed to file was to prevent my mortgage companies from trying to collect monies from me that I simply don’t have.  I never had any credit card problems like most.  I only purchased what I could afford.

There was no way I could have kept my home as victim to predatory lending in 2005.  My home is only worth about half of what I paid for it originally, even after improvements so since I don’t have an extra $75,000 or so to give these game playing banks, I chose to stay as long as possible and keep paying on it.  The loan payments were also due to go up an additional $400-$500 per month this year as well.  My only regret is that I didn’t file sooner because they allow you to have more money in your savings than I thought in a bankruptcy and I should never have let my cash reserve get this low.  I have already stopped making my mortgage payments and expect to receive notice of foreclosure any day now.

Be sure to contact a bankruptcy expert if you ever find yourself in financial hardship before you waste all your savings in a vain attempt trying to hang on to your home.  They should be able to suggest some options for you.  What ever you do, don’t use any service that claims will help you to keep your home.  Most of these are scams as well as most so-called experts are anything but.  There are some legitimate programs available for those that wish to keep their homes.

Pension wise, I need to decide between a small monthly annuity to help with my living expenses and renting somewhere really cheap or just withdraw the lump sum if I happen to find a cheap fixer-upper that is of move-in condition and I will only need to pay for the tax, insurance and utilities which should still be cheaper than most rents though possibly turn into a money pit.  Unfortunately, the prices of homes are on the rise again, though I’m not sure how or why.  The economy, I’m finding out, it truly in the eyes of the beholder.  If you are financially solvent, it’s great.  For folks like me, not so good.

There are apartments for the elderly and disabled that I am now in the income bracket for, but it seems like a place to go when you are on your way out of this world.  I still feel young and vibrant and really am not looking forward to the almost nursing home atmosphere, even if it will be kinder to my purse.  I may take the easy way out and do this, but I still want to try new things.  I forgot that not having money is a real deal-breaker a plan-changer, it’s a female dog!

I am going to attempt an etsy shop very soon but fear their website is so over saturated with home-made items right now.  Years ago you could make a buck because there was less competition, but now I understand from some that sales are hard to come by.  I’ll try it for a few months and if no sales, I will be doing strictly craft shows.  I’ve never made much money hanging in art galleries and doing shows, but when I used to do craft shows with my baskets, I made a few bucks and I really loved the camaraderie with the other crafters.  Might have just been the economy at the time.  I really believe that we have never economically recovered since 9/11.

I am trusting in God to be led by the spirit for the rest of my days.  I will trust in the Lord and I will be led down the right paths from now on.

TrustintheLord

 

Daily Prompt: “Rectum, Darn Near Killed ‘Um!”

When I used to work in the Automated Collection System for the Internal Revenue Service there was an email that made the rounds that someone started to make us feel better about our highly stressful position.  It claimed that there was someone who actually tested the anal thermometers so I guess that was supposed to make us feel better about the daily reamings we received dealing with the angry taxpayer calls when they found levies on their bank accounts or liens on property.  We did the dirty work for them.

According to Snopes.com, it was a joke.  Click on the site if you wish to hear the whole story.

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Tax Problems?

Shortly after leaving the Internal Revenue Service I sat down and wrote a book to help all taxpayers based on what I experienced in their collection area.  After actually being in the belly of the beast, the very heart of what the IRS exists for, I saw that they were really not as bad as people tried to make out.

In the past I had a couple of issues with them because I did not claim some early retirement withdrawal in which tax was withheld before I received it and I genuinely thought I didn’t have to declare it because they had to have already known about it.  Oh how innocent I was!  Another time I didn’t realize there was something called EIC that I qualified for because of a drop in my income.  I’m sure many people don’t know any better when they are about to file.  In fact most IRS issues are genuine failure to follow through because you think you are not liable to do something from filing to reporting things.  The IRS will give you the benefit of the doubt if this is your first time making the mistake.  If it slips your mind again, forget it and that’s only fair.  One time I owed tax the other instance, they gave me a refund because of a credit I didn’t know I had coming.

Most of the time I handled the incoming calls from those that had levies and liens issued against them.  That is the area that also issues these collection actions.  The taxpayers are sent several notices before their cases are transferred to the Automated Collection System for further collection action.  They will try to call you and send you additional notices depending how many you were previously sent.  If you don’t call within the time frame given, they will issue liens on any property you may have and levy bank accounts or your wages.  You have to respond even if you cannot pay or don’t plan to file.  It will go much better for you and the representatives will go over many options to resolve any issues you have that you probably are not even aware of.  They will actually be able to stop or prevent collection against you regardless of what you owe if you are currently in a hardship status.

My book was to let people know easiest and best ways to resolve their individual tax problems without the added expense of a third party.  It is very easy to deal with the IRS.  There are not ways they will trick you or any other such nonsense.  Make no mistake they will want you to “full pay today” as they are required to ask you, but as long as you tell them what you are able to do, they will work with you.  Many so-called tax resolution experts are not who they say they are and most are either fraudulent or incompetent at best.  In the years I was there, we talked to thousands of people that were defrauded by just such people by thousands of dollars they could have used to pay towards their tax liabilities or used towards an Offer-in-Compromise if qualified.

Notice how the tax resolution commercials all seem to say to contact them if you owe over $10,000.  That’s ridiculous!  Any legitimate expert will take your case regardless if you owe anything and work out a reasonable fee with you.  These companies hope that the more you owe, the more you won’t miss the $2,000 on up fees for pretending to represent you.  Yes there may be legitimate tax accountants and attornies, there has to be, but don’t just go with anyone.  Make sure who you are dealing with before you make any business deals or sign anything.  Be sure they are referred by someone you trust and respect.  There were many that were taken advantage of by relatives or relatives of friends of theirs.

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For the time being, I can no longer offer “Don’t Mess With The IRS An Unauthorized Customer Service Guide to Resolving Your ACS Collection Issues.”

I promise to post more information regarding tax information and resolution in short increments in the future.

IRS Self-Help

I apologize that I have sorely neglected information regarding IRS tax resolution, which I used to do for a living.

As an expert in IRS tax collection matters, I am recommending “Don’t Mess With The IRS” as an inexpensive way to resolve any ACS tax collection issue from non-filing to options for paying any penalties or back tax.

The book also covers very important information on how to go about resolving your issues so that you cover every base.  What to do before you call such as having a working pen and paper to write down ALL the information you are given because deadlines are very important and time frames to resolve are always given to the taxpayers.  How to get legitimate legal representation if you should need it is covered as well as what you can expect during your initial contact with the IRS.  This book is invaluable if you have any Federal tax issues or expect to have them.

For the time being, I can no longer offer “Don’t Mess With The IRS An Unauthorized Customer Service Guide to Resolving Your ACS Collection Issues.”

 

T-Day Information

Tax Day!!!

This is the day that everyone who owes tax hates.  Really hates.

Some will chose to ignore it completely and those are the ones that will really benefit from my book “Don’t Mess With The IRS“.

For the time being, I can only offer “Don’t Mess With The IRS An Unauthorized Customer Service Guide to Resolving Your ACS Collection Issues” by sending a postal money order or cashiers check to:

Please send $14.95 + 3.50 for shipping and handling to: Po’ Girl Publications, PO Box 2464, Dearborn Mi 48123.  Michigan residents please include 90 cents additional for sales tax.

This realistic self-help book explains how to file late returns and take care of any back tax issues to your benefit.  Do not believe all the hype those so-called tax resolution experts advertise for getting pennies on the dollar.  If it was that easy, who would ever pay their taxes when due?  There are times when an Offer in Compromise is a realistic and acceptable option but you would be able to verify this for yourself by going to the official irs.gov website to see if you even qualify.  You can write up the offer yourself with a little work.  The workbook the IRS sends you to do this is pretty self-explanatory.  Sure beats paying someone thousands of dollars that you could be using towards your tax obligation.

Please be aware of the many unscrupulous people there are out there advertising that they can help you with any tax issue or get you a bigger refund, especially since the IRS offers all kinds of free filing help for qualified individuals.  Do not pay unless you have to.  Please refer to the irs.gov site to verify if you qualify.  If not, be aware of anyone you select to help you file no matter what their title is.  I have seen all kinds of cons and scams regarding tax reporting.  Sometimes the taxpayer is in on it.  If anyone asks you to fudge something or tells you that you don’t need documentation for your deductibles don’t use them.  It will always come back to bite you and your accountants or preparers are not liable for these returns no matter how poorly or fraudulently they are prepared.  You the taxpayer are accountable.  If you sign the return, you better know what you are signing.

I worked with some individuals years ago that told me there were fraudulent tax preparers that asked them to pretend to be self-employed so they could file false returns and split the refund generated from the fake return.  Just remember yours in the only neck that will be on that chopping block when the IRS finally realizes the return was falsified and you signed it.  By that time, the preparer is long gone.  Since crooks like this usually have a number of people they do this with, it does not take long for that preparer to be linked to a number of fraudulent returns and quicker still to verify the other returns they signed as a preparer on.  Computers are great for this purpose.

Please refer to my previous posts for more filing information as needed as well as the official IRS website irs.gov.

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