Tax Season Opens Jan. 31, Changes to IRS Service Options

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The 2014 tax filing season opens on Friday Jan. 31. That is the first day that the IRS will accept 2013 federal income tax returns.

If you are working on your taxes and need tax help, the IRS website has the tax help and information you need.

Taxpayers are strongly encouraged to explore the various self-service, technology-based options that exist for tax help and tax return preparation on IRS.gov. Taxpayers should be aware that due to limited resources, individualized tax help on IRS toll-free lines and Taxpayer Assistance Centers has changed beginning this year. More information on service changes for the 2014 tax season is available on IRS.gov.

The quickest way to get information and help is through IRS.gov. The web site is available 24/7, so you can get tax help any time you need. You may wish to bookmark 1040 Central as your go-to page for tax help. This web page has information and links to many helpful tools, products and services that will help you prepare and file your tax return. They include:

• Tax Forms and Publications.  Download tax forms and publications. Many publications are also available in Spanish.
• IRS Tools.  You’ll find several tools and self-service options on IRS.gov to help you with your taxes. 
• Here are just a few:
  • Use the Interactive Tax Assistant to answer many of your tax questions.
  • Find out if you’re eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit by using the EITC Assistant.
  • Use the AMT Assistant tool to find out if you may need to pay Alternative Minimum Tax.
  • Track your refund using the ‘Where’s My Refund?’ tool.

When you are ready to file your tax return beginning Jan. 31, there are several, free options that you should consider. Taxpayers who have visited IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers in prior years for free tax preparation should be aware that, beginning this year, these offices are no longer offering this service. Other options for free tax preparation include:

• Use Free File to e-file for free.  Most people e-file their tax return these days. Everyone can use IRS Free File to prepare and e-file their federal taxes for free. The only way to use this program is through the IRS website. If you made $58,000 or less, you can use free tax software. If your income is more than $58,000 and you feel comfortable doing your own taxes, use Free File Fillable Forms. This option has the electronic versions of IRS paper forms.

• Get taxes done with VITA or TCE.  You may be able to get free tax preparation at a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or Tax Counseling for the Elderly site. IRS-trained volunteers can help you get the tax credits and deductions you’re entitled to claim. The VITA program generally offers free tax return preparation and e-filing to people who earn $52,000 or less. The TCE program offers help mainly to people 60 or older. Thousands of free tax preparation sites around the nation will open in late Jan. and early Feb. Visit IRS.gov to find the one nearest you.

Which Tax Form To Use When Filing Your Taxes

There is a right and wrong tax form to use when preparing your taxes.  The IRS has provided some tips to help you file using the correct tax form

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Which form should you use to file your federal income taxes? These days, most people use a computer to prepare and e-file their tax forms. It’s easy, because tax software selects the right form for you. If you file on paper, you’ll need to pick the right form to use.

Before you decide, check out IRS Free File on IRS.gov. It has free tax software or a Fillable Forms option that allows you to fill in your tax forms using a computer. You can e-file the completed forms for free!

If you still prefer paper and pen, here are some tips on how to choose the best form for your situation.
You can generally use the 1040EZ if:

• Your taxable income is below $100,000;
• Your filing status is single or married filing jointly;
• You are not claiming any dependents; and
• Your interest income is $1,500 or less.

The 1040A may be best for you if:

• Your taxable income is below $100,000;
• You have capital gain distributions;
• You claim certain tax credits; and
• You claim adjustments to income for IRA contributions and student loan interest.

However, reasons you must use the 1040 include:

• Your taxable income is $100,000 or more;
• You claim itemized deductions;
• You are reporting self-employment income; or
• You are reporting income from sale of a property.

Read more about which form to use in IRS Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax. The quickest way to get tax forms and instructions is to visit IRS.gov and click on the ‘Forms & Pubs’ tab. New tax forms often appear online well before the printed forms are available.

You can also have forms mailed to you by calling the IRS at 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676), or you can pick them up at a local IRS office. Some libraries and post offices also have tax forms.
IRS YouTube Videos:

• Welcome to Free File – English
• IRS Tax Forms and Publications - English | Spanish | ASL

Top 10 Tips About Free Tax Preparation

Each year millions of people have their tax returns prepared for free by volunteers. These volunteers are part of the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs.

Here are the top 10 tips the IRS wants you to know about VITA and TCE:

1. The IRS sponsors both the VITA and TCE programs. They work with local community groups to both train and certify volunteers.

2. The VITA program generally offers free tax return preparation and e-filing to people who earn $52,000 or less.

3. The TCE program offers help mainly to people age 60 or older. Volunteers specialize in tax issues unique to seniors. AARP is part of the TCE program and helps taxpayers with low to moderate incomes.

4. VITA and TCE provide free electronic filing. An e-filed tax return is the safest and most accurate way to file. Using e-file combined with direct deposit is the fastest way to get your refund.

5. Using VITA and TCE may help ensure you get all the tax credits and deductions you’re able to claim. For example, credits that you may qualify for include the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and the Credit for the Elderly.

6. Some sites provide bilingual help for people who speak limited English.

7. VITA provides free tax assistance to military members and their families. Volunteers help with tax issues related to the military. These include special rules and tax benefits for those serving in combat zones.

8. At some VITA sites, you can also prepare your own federal and state tax returns using free web-based software. This is an option if you don’t need much help or don’t have a home computer. Volunteers are on site to guide you if you need help. The self-preparation options generally offer free tax return preparation software and e-filing to people who earn $58,000 or less.

9. For more than 40 years, the IRS has partnered with nonprofit and community organizations to offer these vital services. Thousands of VITA and TCE sites around the nation will open in late Jan. and early Feb.

10. Visit IRS.gov to find the nearest VITA site. Search the word ’VITA’ and then click on “Free Tax Return Preparation for You by Volunteers.” Site information is also available by calling the IRS at 800-906-9887. To locate the nearest AARP Tax-Aide site, visit aarp.org, or call 888-227-7669.

Google Is Uping the Game on Artificial Intelligence

LONDON (AP) - Google says that it has purchased the British startup DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company founded by a 37-year old former chess prodigy and computer game designer.

The American tech giant's London office confirmed a deal had been made but refused to offer a purchase price, which is reportedly $500 million. The company was founded by researcher Demis Hassabis together with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman.

Hassabis, who is on leave from University College London, has investigated the mechanisms that underlie human memory.

Artificial intelligence uses computers for tasks normally requiring human intelligence, like speech recognition or language translation. DeepMind says the company, based in London, specializes in algorithms and machine learning.

Google, like other tech giants such as Facebook, are anxious to develop systems that work like the human brain.

Certain Taxpayers May Now File Their Employment Taxes Annually

File Just One, Consider It Done!

To reduce burden on small employers, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has simplified the rules for filing employment tax returns to report social security, Medicare, and withheld federal income taxes.
If you have been filing Form 941, Employer's QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return, and believe your employment taxes for the calendar year will be $1,000 or less and would like to file Form 944, Employers ANNUAL Federal Tax Return, instead of Form 941, you must contact the IRS to request to file Form 944 rather than Form 941. You may make the request by calling the IRS at 1-800-829-4933 by April 1 of the current year, or by sending a written request, postmarked by March 15 of the current year, to:
Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service,
Ogden, UT 84201-0038
or
Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service,
Cincinnati, OH 45999-0038.
Select the appropriate addresses above based on the state you are in. See "Without a payment" under the "Where Should You File" section of the Instructions for Form 944.

If you do not receive written notice from the IRS to file Form 944, you must file Forms 941 for the current calendar year.

What if you want to file Forms 941 instead of the Form 944?

You must file Form 944 if the IRS has notified you to do so, unless you contact the IRS to request, and receive written notice, to file quarterly Form 941 instead. This is true even if your employment taxes for the year will be over $1,000.  If you receive notice to file Form 944, you do not have the option to file quarterly Form 941, unless you follow the procedures to opt out of the Form 944 program. If you are required to file Form 944 but file a Form 941, you will be notified that the Form 941 you submitted will not be processed and advised that you must file a Form 944 unless you follow the procedures to opt out of the Form 944 program. Additionally, you must deposit employment taxes using the form number that the IRS has notified you to file, and using the correct deposit rules based on your tax liabilities as discussed below.

To request to file quarterly Forms 941 to report your social security, Medicare, and withheld federal income taxes for the current calendar you may make the request by calling the IRS by April 1 of the current year, or by sending a written request, postmarked by March 15 of the current year using the same contact information as above.

The IRS will send you a written notice that your filing requirement has been changed. If you do not receive this notice, you must file Form 944 for the current calendar year. See Rev. Proc. 2009-51, 2009-45 I.R.B. 625, for additional information.  Read more

Payment Alternatives When You Owe the IRS

Payment Alternatives When You Owe the IRS

Watching Your Tax Dollars, Arny Has Different Ideas for the Future, Robots!

Based on the article below, it's safe to say that entering the computer age of robots is a safe place to place your career goals. There will be a need to program the future soldiers as well as maintenance!


More robots, fewer people. That’s where the US military is headed in the future. But what kind of robots?
Army Gen. Robert Cone, four-star commander of the powerful Training and Doctrine Command (aka TRADOC), said that the service is studying how robots could help replace 25 percent of the soldiers in each of its 4,000-strong combat brigades. That’s because the current budget crunch is pushing the military to replace expensive human beings – and the expensive hardware required to keep them alive — with cheaper and expendable robots. The Army is under particular pressure because it has the most people, spending almost half its budget on pay and benefits, and those people take the heaviest casualties.

What’s hotly debated, however, is what jobs robots should do, under what level of human control. Should do they the drudge work of war, sparing humans the “dirty, dull, and dangerous” jobs like clearing roadside bombs? Or should we trust robots to kill on their own initiative?

The Army basically wants R2-D2s and mechanized mules, helpful bots that haul supplies, scout ahead, and provide technical support to the human heroes who do the actual fighting. They want small robots that trundle alongside the foot troops, loaded with sophisticated sensors so they can point out potential dangers, “robots that respond, if you will, like a bird dog,” said TRADOC’s Maj. Gen. William Hix in a conference call with journalists this morning. They want mid-size robots that carry extra supplies for infantrymen on long patrols, a concept once officially called MULE. They want big trucks that drive themselves, entire supply convoys where a long line of robots plays “follow the leader” behind a single human-driven vehicle at the front. They want scout drones that fly ahead of manned helicopters and report back what they find.
But, as TRADOC Col. Kevin Felix once told me, “No Terminators.”

Not so outside the Army. In a thinktank report released today, 20YY: Preparing for War in the Robotic Age, former Navy Under Secretary Robert Work and co-author Shawn Brimley call for developing “autonomous attack systems” cheap and numerous enough to form “reconnaissance-strike swarms.” Think big, robotic killer bees that attack with smart bombs instead of stingers and that coordinate their maneuvers using wi-fi instead of pheromones.

Both sides agree there’ll be more robots in the future military — and not just our military. In fact, when you put together cuts to military research and development, the spread of high technology worldwide, and our unease about letting computers decide when to pull the trigger, there’s a real fear that more agile and less ethical enemies may field killer robots first.

These are questions of life, death, and taxes — that is, the tens of billions of your taxpayer dollars that the military will have to invest in whatever it decides to do.

The Army is already experimenting with armed robots like the MADDS prototype pictured above, but they always have a human being pulling the trigger, albeit by remote control. TRADOC doesn’t anticipate the actual fielding an of “unmanned combat platform” until around 2035 — and the military programs its unmanned systems not to fire without direct orders from a human. That’s not a restriction Army leaders are eager to release.

You Can Now Download Your Tax Return Transcript From The IRS

Huzzah for convenience! Americans can now download their tax return transcript directly from the IRS. Previously, citizens had to slog through a questionnaire and wait 5-10 business days for a physical form through snail mail. I tried out their new service today and, after spending about two minutes answering security questions, I was able to download three years worth of tax information.




“I am very excited to announce that the IRS has just launched, this week, the ‘get transcript’ application which will give taxpayers the ability to view, print, and download tax transcripts,” said Katherine Sydor, Advisor at Office of Consumer Policy at the Treasury. Sydor made her announcement at the White House’s education “Datapalooza,” a gathering of hackers and policy leaders to jam on how open government data can help solve the nation’s education ills (Video link, ~1:37:00)

As is becoming tradition at the White House, the newly launched feature has some bugs. I had to re-register after I couldn’t log in a second time. The IRS asked me for a “user name,” which it never told me; when I tried retrieving it with the “forgot user ID” function, the website encountered an error. A minor bug, but it’s not helping the White House shake its tarnished reputation.

One would think that downloading tax returns would not be novel in 2014. But, the software tax industry has spent millions lobbying the government not to design its own interface. Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, reap heavy rewards from being one of the only web apps for filing and retrieving tax information.

Still, despite the lobbying, it seems the IRS can still make some progress in open government. Check out the Get Transcript web app here.

Billionaires Behaving Badly Again, Gets No Jail Time, Massive Penalties

If you wondering how billionaires like Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies, can avoid paying taxes on billions, you'll want to read my latest book, Offshore Transparency by C, Ingraham RTRP.  This book explains in detail how billionaires like Warner have successfully avoided millions in taxes over the decades.


CHICAGO (AP) -- The billionaire creator of Beanie Babies was sentenced to two years of probation, but no prison time, on Tuesday for tax evasion on $25 million in income he had stashed away in Swiss bank accounts.
 

H. Ty Warner, 69, appeared somber but composed as he made a brief statement before receiving his sentence in a Chicago federal courtroom, apologizing and saying he felt "shame and embarrassment" for what he had done.

He could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison, and prosecutors were seeking prison time for Warner, who pleaded guilty last year to a single tax evasion count.

U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras, however, sentenced Warner to probation and 500 hours of community service, praising the toy magnate for the charity work he's done.

Kocoras said his decision was difficult, but he added, "Society will be better served by allowing him to continue his good works."

The judge said Warner's "public humiliation" and "private torment" as a result of his criminal prosecution was a punishment he's already paid.

Warner was among the highest-profile prosecutions in the federal government's push to go after Americans concealing income from the IRS overseas, often in Switzerland. Prosecutors say at one point, Warner was concealing as much as $107 million.

Beanie Babies first appeared in the mid-1990s, triggering a craze that generated hundreds of millions of dollars for Westmont, Ill.-based TY Inc., of which Warner is the sole owner. Forbes recently put his net worth at $2.6 billion.

The small, plush toys have heart-shaped name tags and are made to resemble bears and other animals. Some are designed to look like cartoon or comic book characters. As collectibles, some fetch thousands of dollars.

Warner maintained a secret offshore account starting in 1996 with the Switzerland-based financial services company UBS. He earned $3.1 million in gross income in 2002 through the account, but didn't report it, prosecutors say.

Grab a copy today, Offshore Transparency it all facts, but reads like a crime mystery.  Both entertaining and enlightening, you'll be amazed at what wealthy taxpayers have been doing for years.

IRS Has Video Help For Filing 2014 Returns

IRS Offers Videos to Help Taxpayers Preparing to File in 2014

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is offering taxpayers a number of instructional YouTube videos to help prepare their taxes for the upcoming filing season, which begins on Jan. 31.

Several options are available to help taxpayers prepare for the 2014 tax season and get their refunds as easily as possible. Many software companies are expected to begin accepting tax returns in January and hold those returns until the IRS systems open on Jan. 31. This includes the Free File partners that offer access to their software for free at irs.gov/Free File. The IRS will not process any tax returns before Jan. 31, so there is no advantage to filing on paper before the opening date. Taxpayers will receive their tax refunds much faster by using e-file or Free File with the direct deposit option.

In addition, the IRS has short and informative YouTube videos on a number of tax-related topics in English, Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL). The channels have received nearly 6.5 million views:

• IRS Videos — http://www.youtube.com/irsvideos
• ASL Videos — http://www.youtube.com/IRSvideosASL
• Multilingual Videos —http://www.youtube.com/IRSvideosMultilingua

Specific videos that taxpayers may view to help them get ready over the coming weeks include:

• Do-It-Yourself Free Tax Preparation ─ Helps taxpayers find free help from certified volunteers to electronically file tax returns. Taxpayers interested in helping their own communities can also watch a video to learn aboutbecoming involved in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs.
• Do I Have to File a Tax Return? ─ Learn about the requirements for filing a tax return, including income limits and age, and why taxpayers may want to file even if they don't have to.
• How to Get 1040 Forms ─  Provides tips on the quickest way to get the various 1040 forms on IRS.gov.
• Tax Scams ─  Offers some tips on how to protect personal information and avoid becoming a tax scam victim.
• Record-keeping ─  Learn which financial and tax files to keep and how long to keep them.
• Changed Your Name After Marriage or Divorce? ─  Find out what you need to do if you have changed your name before you file your tax return.
• Choosing a Tax Preparer ─ Hear some useful tips for choosing a reputable tax preparer.

The IRS uses social media tools and platforms to share the latest information on tax changes, initiatives, products and services. These social media platforms include the IRS2Go phone application, YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook. To protect taxpayer privacy, the IRS only uses social media tools to share public information, not to answer personal tax or account questions. It advises taxpayers to never post confidential information, like a Social Security number, on social media sites. A listing is available on IRS.gov.