Posts Tagged employment

Tax Relief and Tax Deadline Extensions for Storm Victims

Posted on June 8, 2011 | Tax Studies.

Various parts of the United States have been hit by storms and bad weather since the beginning of 2011. These areas include Joplin, Missouri, which had about 132 people die and a further 156 missing as of May 2011 following a massive storm. Other areas hit by storms include parts of Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There are many who have lost loved ones, property, jobs, and their whole neighborhood.

The stories, scenes, and impact of the storms have been a sad tale and well wishers and volunteers continue to help with relief of any kind towards the victims. The IRS has also provided extensive tax relief to many victims of these areas hit and has also extended various tax deadlines to give time to the victims to recover from the impact of the natural catastrophes.

The IRS has pushed the tax deadline for taxpayers who are residents of areas that have been hit by storms that started in April 2011 from the usual deadline of April 18th to August 1st, 2011. The tax deadline applies both filing tax returns and payment of due taxes.

The taxes that are affected by the extension of the deadline include 2010 tax returns and 2nd quarter income estimate installment that was due in June 15th. For the people of Jasper County, the tax deadline for the payment of federal employment and excise tax deposits that were due May 22nd had been extended to June 6, 2011. Anyone who receives a penalty charge letter from IRS for lateness of tax payment and is a resident of the areas affected by the storms can call the IRS number indicated in the letter and provide the reason of lateness to the IRS as the impact of the storm. The penalties will be automatically waived.

Besides Jasper County, there are also different deadlines that have been extended to people in different areas affected by the bad weather. Some deadline extensions for areas hit by storms are provided below:

  • For parts of Mississippi affected by the bad weather including Adams, Bolivar, Claiborne, DeSoto, Coahoma, Issaquena, Humphreys, Jefferson, Tunica, Sharkey, Washington, Yazoo, Warren, and Wilkinson, the extension for tax returns has been pushed to July 5th and that of employment and excise taxes that were to be paid by April 27th had been extended to May 18th.
  • For parts of Kentucky hit by storms including Ballard, Crittenden, Boyd, Graves, Daviess, Henderson, Hardin, Jefferson, Hickman, Livingston, Lawrence, Pike, Webster, Union, McCracken, Marshall, and McLea, the tax return deadline is extended to June 30th and the employment and excise taxes due by April 22nd extended to May 9th.
  • For parts of Georgia that have been affected including Bartow, Cherokee, Catoosa, Dade, Coweta, Gordon, Floyd, Greene, Harris, Habersham, Heard, Lumpkin, Lamar, Monroe, Meriwether, and Morgan, the deadline has been extended to June 30th and that the employment and excise taxes due by April 27th extended to May 12th.

Besides the extended deadlines, the victims of the storms can also claim Casualty Loss against their damaged property. The loss needs to be claimed in the tax year that the disaster occurred apart from the specific regions that the Federal state officially declares as disaster regions. For the later group, they can file the claim for up to one year after the damage was done to the property. The damage of the property needs to be caused by a storm, bad weather, or other sudden and unprecedented causes and not by other general and routine factors such as wear and tear.

Self Employment and IRS Collections

Posted on May 23, 2011 | Tax Studies.

These days, there are a lot of people who are finding themselves self-employed in some way. There’s about 10 million self-employed workers in the United States alone and the number continues to grow every year. After all, with the job market the way it is, it’s a lot easier to try to work out your own business plan or do freelance work within your field. But when it comes to IRS collections, self employment can be a little tricky come tax time.

First you need to determine whether your status is self-employment. You are self-employed if you carry on a business as a independent contractor or a sole proprietor, if you are part of a partnership that carries on a trade or business, or you are just in business for yourself. Part-time work is included in this.

What falls into these lines of work can be a little confusing. While some things are straight forward, like if you write articles freelance for various publications; others can be tricky. Some internships that pay a stipend instead of giving credit will often give a 1040 form that has you down as self-employed. If taxes weren’t taken out of the stipend, you will have to pay them. Before taking on any job or internship, you should inquire as to what it is considered in case it isn’t obvious. There’s also some confusion over husband and wife joint businesses, depending on whether you are partners or one is an employee of another.

You must file an income tax return if your yearly earnings as a self-employed individual are more than $400. If you are running your own business where you are paying yourself, subtract your business expenses from your business income to figure out your end of the year earnings. The self-employment tax in the United States is currently set at 15.30% so you can get an idea of what IRS collections will be.

If you find yourself in need of tax debt relief after figuring out what you owe, you may want to look into getting help dealing with a payment arrangement. It’s also good to have a professional look over your papers before filing, because filing as a self-employed person can be very confusing if it’s not something you are used to. You don’t want to be taken advantage of in any way or lose out on deductions that can help you in the long run, or even turn you around from owing to getting a refund.