Federal Income Taxes

Tax Day 2026

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tax extension 2019 form 4868

After a few years of tax day jumping around thanks to holidays in Washington D.C., tax day once again on April 15th. That’s a Wednesday, so don’t expect any weird holidays to save you. To avoid penalties, most Americans will need to file either their tax return or an request for extension by April 15 this year. Tax Extension 2026 The IRS grants an automatic, no questions asked, extension to any filer who requests one by April 15 using Form 4868. Filing for a tax extension moves the due date for your taxes to October 15th. However, there is a catch. If you OWE money on your taxes — that is, if you are not getting a refund — the amount you owe is still due on April 15. Filing an extension does not give you extra time to pay, only extra time to file. What happens if I don’t file my taxes on time? How does this work? On Form 4868, you’ll see a place to estimate how much taxes you are going to owe in 2026, for your 2025tax return. You have to make a payment for this amount along with your extension form. If you overestimate how …

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HSA Contributions

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medical-taxes

A quick reminder not to forget to use your HSA account to pay for ALL of your qualified medical expenses. Remember, you get the deduction based upon CONTRIBUTIONS, and your contributions do NOT have to be made before your expenses are incurred. In other words, if you go to the doctor and get a $180 bill, you can (EVEN AFTER) contribute $180 to your HSA account. Pay the $180 doctor bill (maybe using a rewards credit card), and THEN reimburse yourself the $180 expense. This is the best way to deduct medical expenses if you qualify. Otherwise, remember that you can only deduct medical expenses that are 10% above your adjusted gross income. With an HSA account, every contribution is deductible, regardless of when you use the money to pay medical bills. Also, any medical bills you pay with your HSA cannot be deducted as medical expenses. Also, HSA paid expenses do not count toward the 7.5% floor needed to deduct medical expenses. Remember, the contribution is deductible, not the expense. Contribute money for every qualified medical expense you have, and the net effect is the same as deducting all of your medical expenses. Remember, unlike a FSA, you can …

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Tax Forms for Filing Taxes 2025

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tax forms for filing taxes

It’s Federal Income Tax Time, here in America. The due date for filing your income taxes, and the dreaded Form 1040 is, as usual, April 15th. (No extra days to file taxes in 2025. Those pesky Washington D.C. holidays have moved on to other days..) But, before you can file your income taxes, you’ll need all the forms and information you need to file. For most taxpayers, the main document you need is a Form W2 from your employer. The W2 form reports not only your wages, but also the amounts that were withheld from your paycheck during the year. If you worked for more than one employer, you would need to get a W2 from each one. If you don’t have a traditional employer, or if you do paid work on the side, you’ll need to collect Form 1099-MISC from all of your clients that paid you more than $600 during 2025. Unfortunately, for people like freelance writers, that means you may have to track down some former clients, especially if you moved and didn’t notify them of your new address. Unlike regular employee types. There are usually no withholdings to report on a 1099 form. Many clients will …

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Deduct Small Business Expenses

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Can I deduct my small business? How do I deduct my sole proprietorship business? That’s a question I get a lot from sole proprietors and other small business owners. The trick is that most information about small business taxes reads like it aimed at larger businesses, specifically, those that have employees. However, the same IRS tax rules that apply to those small businesses apply to entrepreneurs running their own single person business or small family business. It’s an important question because small business expense deductions can lower your overall tax rates and move you down a bracket on the tax tables. When Can You Deduct a Business? There is really one simple test that a business must pass to be tax deductible: Is there a profit motive? For the IRS, the sole determination of whether something is a hobby, or a legitimate, tax-deductible business, is whether or not you are doing it for profit, instead of for fun. Of course, it wouldn’t be the IRS without hundreds of pages of rules, regulations, and numerous publications sorting out just what is a deductible profit motive. There is a somewhat legendary tax law case where a man claimed his golf expenses as …

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Basic Taxes Overview 2024

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taxes

As June 2024 comes to a close Americans everywhere have stopped thinking about taxes, but the real key to paying less in taxes like the rich do is year-round tax planning. So, let’s do a quick overview of tax law in 2024 and how that will affect filing 2024 taxes in 2025. Tax Basics Form 1040 Let’s begin by kicking out anyone who has unusual scenarios of income or assets. This is going to be a basic tax overview for taxpayers that get W-2 forms, or 1099 forms, or own their own small business. If your income comes from something else like royalties, or mining rights, or whatever, this will not apply to you. This is also true if a trust, or other tax situation drives your income or expenses. Frankly, people in this category probably already have accountants, attorneys, or financial managers. Let’s not clog this up with “But what if…” about situations that don’t apply to “average” scenarios. The basic tax form is Form 1040. For the most basic scenarios, that form is the only thing a taxpayer needed to file. For others, a variety of Schedules are required, the results of those schedules are then added in …

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Tax Brackets Tax Tables 2023

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irs taxes tax form

The tax tables for 2023, which determine the tax brackets for 2023, used by most people in Spring of 2024, while filing their 2023 taxes, have been set by the IRS. As always, there are seven different tax brackets based upon the taxpayer’s filing status. The different brackets are the Single tax bracket, the Married filing jointly tax bracket (also used by Qualifying widows or widowers), Married filing separately, and Head of household. All the tax filing types have the same tiers of tax rates, 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. As you can see, the biggest tax bracket rate jump occurs between the 12% and 22% tax level. So those under $41,775 (single) or $83,550 (married) are the “low” taxpayers, and those above are the “higher” taxpayers. There is another big jump between the 24% tax bracket and the 32% tax bracket. You can consider this the “upper class” or “upper income” portion of the U.S. population, at least when speaking about taxes and the rates each class, or tier pays. As always, your actual percentage of taxes paid varies based upon various factors including tax deductions. Typically, taxes begin based upon the taxpayer’s Adjusted Gross Income …

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2024 Section 179 Deduction Limits for Small Businesses Taxes

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small business section 179

Small business tax deductions are important in order to offset high business taxes levied against small business owners and entrepreneurs. This is especially true for work from home entrepreneurs who file as sole proprietors, or as a Limited Liability Company aka LLC, with sole proprietor tax status. Small business owners can get hit with high tax bills thanks to Self-Employment Taxes. Self-employment tax, or SE Tax, is so high because it includes taxes that would usually be paid by the employer. In a typical employer-employee scenario, the employee pays 6.2% in Social Security Taxes. The employer withholds this amount from the employee’s paycheck. What many people don’t realize is that the employer also pays 6.2% in social security tax for the employee. A small business owner that files as a sole proprietor is on the hook for the whole amount! The self-employment tax rate – sometimes called the SE tax rate – is 15.3%, which is 12.4% for social security taxes plus another 2.9% for Medicare taxes. That 15.3% is on top of regular Federal Income Taxes. A successful small business owner in the 30% tax bracket, pays a blood curdling 45% tax rate. And that is before adding Medicare …

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How Long To Keep Tax Returns

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how long keep tax return records

Tax Day is today. Hope you are ready! If you have already filed, there is one more piece of tax business you can attend to before you run off into your summer. Time to shred some old tax returns and documents. IRS Rule For How Long to Keep Taxes The general rule for how long you have to keep your tax returns and other tax records is three years. HOWEVER, this is the IRS we are talking about, so there are some exceptions, and sub-rules to the general rule. First, you need to know when to count from. The 3-year rule counts three years from the date you FILED them. So, if you filed early, you don’t technically have to wait until April 15 (I always do. Better safe than sorry.) On the other hand, if you filed late, whether with an extension or not, you need to keep them for three years from that date. Also, the IRS says you should keep your returns for two years after you paid the tax, so if you ended up paying late, or on some sort of payment plan, be sure to keep them for two years after that tax bill has been …

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Is Patreon Taxable Income?

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taxes 2020 personal deduction

Patreon is a website that allows people to contribute funds to support the work of artists and creators. When you get money, do you have to pay taxes on Patreon? If so, what are the Patreon taxes for creators? Is Patreon tax deductible? Let’s start from the beginning. Is Patreon taxable? What Is Patreon Income? Patreon is deliberately misspelled, likely because patron.com was already taken and whoever owned it wanted too much money for it. A patron, as in patron of the arts, is (or was) a person who supports artists or art causes. The most famous patrons of all time were the Medici family, who supported numerous artists, including Leonardo da Vinci. The idea behind the website is arguably similar. The Patreon website allows people to support “creators” by pledging a certain payment per month. In exchange, the creator may (but is not obligated to) offer various “rewards” for said contributions. The question is are Patreon payments considered taxable income for income tax filing purposes. Is Patreon Tax Deductible? Most Patreon Contributions Not Tax Deductible Let’s start with the easier question. No matter how much you like artists, and no matter how much supporting them feels like a charitable donation, …

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File Taxes for Free with IRS Free File

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file taxes free

If you are thinking, how can I file my taxes for free, you might also be thinking that the IRS should offer a way to file taxes for free online. After all, how hard can it be to write a simple, free income tax preparation software, when you are the ones that actually write the tax laws. You would be right, except for this is America where big bribes campaign contributions mean that politicians care more about companies that make tax software than they do about taxpayers. Still, there is a way to file your taxes for free online. IRS Free File IRS Free File is a “public/private partnership” where companies that make fully priced commercial tax software also make a free tax filing version in exchange for being on the IRS Free File website. This is the best the citizens of America could get against intense lobbying by Intuit, the maker of TurboTax. File Taxes for Free Limitations There are limits on who can use Free File. The IRS currently lists $72,000 as the maximum income. Also, for people who have more complicated taxes, the commercial paid options might be a better way to go. As a freelance writer, …

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