Bank finance articles and tips

Before discussing the disadvantages about Fair Tax, what exactly is the Fair Tax? The Fair Tax Act started in 2003 by a group named Americans for Fair Taxation. The fair tax would abrogate all federal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes. Instead, the fair tax would replace them with a federal retail tax of 23%. The retail sales tax of 23% would not be applied to imports, goods to make other goods, or used goods.

Sounds good doesn't it? But what are the disadvantages to this? The first one that comes to mind is who will make sure that the taxes are being regulated and collected correctly? The plan for the tax states that the IRS would not be needed once all income taxes are abolished. The people of the United States would need a whole new agency that would need to handle the new tax system so it can be regulated, and make sure that corruption does not start....

Are you one of the many who think that in order to save taxes, you have to first generate some sort of income? Though many consider tax planning and tax savings to be one in the same, let's not get ahead of ourselves. After re-negotiating credit card debt, some find that they still owe thousands of dollars of taxes towards the IRS. How does this happen? In the event that a lender decides to forgive debt, the forgiven debt then becomes Cancellation of Debt, also known as COD income, which means it is taxable....

So you've made all your workers independent contractors instead of employees to save payroll taxes you've been paying. It sounded like a great idea.

• You saved thousands of dollars on employment taxes

• You didn't have to worry about filing payroll (941) tax returns

• You saved the quarterly payroll processing charges you

• Maybe even your accountant suggested it to you

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Few words can conjure up that queasy feeling in your stomach more easily than the word "audit". The fact is the IRS conducts millions of audits or examinations each year for various reasons. If you recently received a letter from the IRS and are unsure what the next step should be, then hopefully this article will help inform you of your options....

If you are running your small business or self-employment activity as a sole proprietorship, are you wondering what federal taxes you are required to pay? Read on to find out....

Tax Preparers are seeing significant changes in their requirements for the coming tax season and for the future of the industry as a whole. The past year and a half has brought about considerable regulation into the tax preparation industry. Most notably has been the recent requirements relating to obtaining and maintaining a Preparers Tax Identification Number, better known as a PTIN. In past tax seasons the IRS did not have a standardized tracking system in place to determine who is actually preparing tax returns and a disciplinary policy that allowed for adverse action to be taken against preparers who continually file fraudulent returns and abuse the e-file system. That has all been changed, and this year if becomes official....