Category: expats

If you are a taxpayer with disabilities, or if you are parents of children with disabilities, you may be eligible for the EITC. To see if you qualify go to Publication 4808 for more information.

With tax season upon us, the IRS has a significant amount of essential personnel it needs to keep on duty, but more than 50% of the agency’s employees are being furloughed during the shutdown. If it were any other time of the year, that percentage would be even higher. The IRS begins accepting 2017 tax returns on January 29, but questions may go unanswered, and help from agency employees will be hard to come by as Americans try to figure out this new tax system on their own during the shutdown.

Excerpt: Caroline Kenny, CNN

 

As people prepare to file their taxes, there are things to consider. They will want to determine if they need to file and the best way to do so.

Here are three things for people to keep in mind as they prepare to file their taxes:

Who is Required to File. In most cases, income, filing status and age determine if a taxpayer must file a tax return. Other rules may apply if the taxpayer is self-employed or if they are a dependent of another person. For example, if a taxpayer is single and younger than age 65, they must file if their income was at least $10,400. There are other instances when a taxpayer must file. Go to IRS.gov/filing for more information.

Filing to get a refund. Even if a taxpayer doesn’t have to file, they should file a tax return if they can get money back. If a taxpayer answers “yes” to any of these questions, they could be due a refund:

◦Did my employer withhold federal income tax from my pay?
◦Did I make estimated tax payments?
◦Did I overpay last year and have it applied to this year’s tax?

Excerpt: IRS Tax Tip 2018-07

The Internal Revenue Service announced January 4 that the nation’s tax season will begin Monday, Jan. 29, 2018 and reminded taxpayers claiming certain tax credits that refunds won’t be available before late February.

The IRS will begin accepting tax returns on Jan. 29, with nearly 155 million individual tax returns expected to be filed in 2018. The nation’s tax deadline will be April 17 this year – so taxpayers will have two additional days to file beyond April 15.