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Excel1040: Spreadsheet-based Tax Software

Sat, 31 May 2014 09:20:34 +0000

Ever wish you could just do your taxes in Excel? Well, thanks to Glenn Reeves, you can.

Gleen Reeves created Excel spreadsheets to prepare Form 1040 and related schedules. For the year 2013, Reeves offers a full 1040 version (in the .xlsx format) that supports schedules A, B, C, D, E, and SE, and supporting forms 6251, 8949, 8959, and 8960. He also offers a "lite" version (in the .xls format) which does not include support for Schedules C, E and SE and Form 6251.

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How to Adjust Withholding

Fri, 30 May 2014 09:45:23 +0000

A description of the nine steps to adjust withholding in the middle of the year.

What to gather beforehand:

Recent paystub
Previous year's tax return
Form W-4 (pdf) printed out
Publication 505 (pdf), with Worksheets 1-5 and 1-6 printed out
Pencil
Calculator
Either scratch paper or spreadsheet (to do any calculations)

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Foreign Bank Accounts due June 30th

Thu, 29 May 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Americans may need to file a foreign bank account report with the Treasury Department. This report (called FinCEN Form 114) is required if

a person or business or other entity owns, has a financial interest in, or signature authority over one or more accounts held at a financial institution outside the United States and
the total balance across all such foreign accounts is at least $10,000 at any time during the year.

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IRS.gov's Direct Pay

Wed, 28 May 2014 23:45:00 +0000

A new way to pay the IRS directly

The Internal Revenue Service has launched a feature on their website called "Direct Pay." Direct Pay enables individuals to pay taxes relating to Form 1040 directly to the IRS.

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Received Form 5498 in the Mail?

Tue, 27 May 2014 11:44:16 +0000

Form 5498 is one of those tax forms that arrives, usually, in late May. This form reports contributions made to individual retirement accounts and health savings accounts. Why May? So financial institutions can include on the form any contributions made by April 15th for the previous calendar year. You may want to double check this against your tax return just to make sure you claimed your IRA or HSA deduction. Learn more about Form 5498.

Small Business Deductions

Thu, 15 May 2014 15:08:59 +0000

Businesses can deduct a wide variety of expenses, such advertising and rent. The general rule is that to be deductible, an expense must be both ordinary and necessary. Here's a list of the most common business expenses.

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Tips for Starting a Business

Fri, 09 May 2014 19:33:28 +0000

Thinking of starting a business? Before starting a business, it's good idea to first know how to run a business. Jean Murray outlines the topics you'll need to grapple with to make sure your business venture gets started on the right foot in her article, What Do I Need to Know to Run a Business?

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Tax Reform Act of 2014, Part 7, IRS Administrative Proposals Impacting Individuals

Wed, 30 Apr 2014 21:13:05 +0000

The Tax Reform Act of 2014, put forward by Dave Camp and others, proposes 25 changes to how the IRS administers the tax laws. In the seventh and final installment of our series, we take a look at the 13 administrative proposals that would impact individual taxpayers.

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Tax Reform Act of 2014, Part 6, Retirement Plans

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 05:20:46 +0000

House Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Dave Camp released draft legislation, the Tax Reform Act of 2014, proposing a wide variety of changes to America's tax system. In part 6 of a series, we look at proposals for changing retirement plans.

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Obamas, Bidens Release 2013 Tax Returns

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 05:20:41 +0000

President Obama and Vice President Biden released their tax returns for the year 2013 to the public on April 11, 2014. The tax returns are available to download on the White House blog as PDF files.

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