The new healthcare law which was just affirmed by the Supreme Court, officially titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“the Act”), has a number of consequences beyond just medical reform. Specifically, the law is full of new taxes and tax increases that will affect individuals and businesses alike. However, many of these taxes will take years to take effect.

First, starting in 2012, the value of health care benefits that employers provide to employees must be reported on W-2s. The amount reported is not considered income.

Second, in 2011, the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts was doubled to 20%.

Third, employees are now limited in the amount that they can contribute to health care flexible spending accounts. This was previously a discretionary amount; now it is capped at $2500.

Fourth, beginning in 2013 the itemized deduction limit for medical expenses will increase from 7.5% to 10%.

Finally, individuals who do not procure their own health insurance by 2014 will be taxed. This tax will be phased in over three years starting at the greater of $95 or 1% of income and rising to the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income in 2016.

If you owe back taxes to the IRS and have questions about how the new Healthcare Law will affect your tax situation contact Florida Tax Attorney Mary King 941.906.7585... ...read full post

It is expected that the IRS will be more thorough in reviewing tax returns this year. It’s been rumored that tax increases will be necessary to reduce the budget deficit, but now Washington leaders are coming out and saying it.

Rep. Steny Hoyer(D-MD) said at the first of this month that increasing taxes to reduce the budget may be, “the only solution.” Hoyer also said a balanced approach is needed that “raises some revenue.”

As a result, American taxpayers will be expected to fork out more of what they earn, both during the years of the current recession and when it comes to filing their annual returns for years to come.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will be even more aggressive in checking to make sure the United States Government gets every penny owed to it. The increased diligence that the IRS will employ in reviewing returns means that taxpayers will have to assure they are knowledgeable about the money that may be owed to the government.

That’s why consulting with a IRS tax attorney is important when preparing returns and in the event that taxpayers are audited to avoid costly IRS tax problems.

April 20, 2010 by Mary E King Florida Tax Attorney... ...read full post

No More Refund Anticipation Loans IRS Wipes Out the “Quickie Tax Loan” Business with New Ruling

IRS Spokesman David Stell declared that the agency shall no longer release “debt indicators” of taxpayers to tax preparation services.

Debt indicators released by the IRS are those that indicate whether the taxpayer will receive any tax refund, and if that refund would be offset by payment of delinquent taxes, student loans or child support. Tax preparers and payday loans companies use this information to process Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL) or RAC (Refund Anticipation Checks).

The usual target market for the loans are taxpayers in the lower-income bracket. Tax preparers take advantage of these individual’s need to get hold of cash quickly to process such loans. Both refund anticipation loans and refund anticipation checks are being used by taxpayers so that instead of having out-of-pocket payments, the tax preparation fees and products are paid for. The target of such loans and checks are those who have no cash-at-hand to pay for services done under tax preparation.

However, according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, the reason behind the non-release of debt indicators in the next tax filing season is that tax returns and refunds can now be processed in just 10 days. Because the processing has become faster, taxpayers are instead ... ...read full post

I hear varieties of this question frequently in my office. In this week’s blog, I have taken two examples from newspaper articles of examples of individuals who violated different sections of the tax code and unfortunately ended up in prison.

Former Wisconsin Restaurant Owner Receives Prison
Term for Evading Income Taxes

On February 27, 2008, in Madison, Wis., Sabi Atteyih was sentenced to 12 months plus one day in prison, to be followed by a three year term of supervised release for income tax evasion. On January 2, 2008, Atteyih pleaded guilty to evading his income taxes for 2002. While owning the Casbah Restaurant in Madison, Atteyih underreported his taxable income from the restaurant from 2002 through 2005 by $349,673 and he evaded income taxes totaling $128,938.

Minnesota Woman Sentenced for Failing to Pay Employment Taxes
On April 20, 2009, in St. Paul, Minn., Kara Kristine Sommer, of Burnsville, Minn., was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release for failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) payroll taxes from employees of a construction business. According to her plea agreement, Sommer admitted withholding or causing to be withheld amounts for federal income taxes and Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes from the wages of employees of Frontier Construction, Inc., located in... ...read full post

IRS Releases Data That Shows Nearly 3000 Millionaires Collected Unemployment In 2008

The IRS has recently released data concerning unemployment insurance claims in 2008 and the data revealed that benefits were collected by nearly 3000 individuals who are considered millionaires. Of those 3000, 806 made over 2 million and 17 made over 10 million.

How is this possible you may ask? The fact is, unemployment is an insurance program that employers contribute to, it is not a welfare program based on need.

So, regardless of your income level, if you have lost your job and your employer paid insurance benefits, you are entitled to make a claim.

It is hard to think that a person making 10 million dollars a year would bother with a $300 a week check, but every penny counts when you are unemployed.

While this may seem outrageous, these numbers are really nothing compared to the actual number of people that filed for unemployment insurance in 2008. The actual number released from the IRS has shown that a total of 9.5 million individuals made claims during the year; an astounding figure.

These numbers are much higher than those in 2007. The IRS even refused to publish the amount of millionaires filling for claims in 2007 because the number was so low that... ...read full post