Tax Break: The TurboTax Blog » Announcements

Houston: Biggest Tax Procrastinator of the Decade

TurboTaxBlogTeam — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:00:40 +0000

Psst. Houston, we REALLY have a problem! For the fifth time in 10 years, Houston has claimed top honors on the TurboTax annual list of America’s most tax procrastinating cities. This year’s ranking of late-filing cities, compiled for 10 years by Intuit Inc., the maker of TurboTax tax software products, shows no changes in the top four cities that are among the last to file federal tax returns.

Interactive by Column Five Media

Embed the above interactive post on your site using the code below:

<param name="quality" value="autohigh" /><param name="scale" value="exactfit" /><param name="salign" value="l" /><param name="name" value="TaxProcrastinator" /><param name="src" value="http://intuitturbotax.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/cash.swf" /><param name="align" value="top" /></object><br /><a href="http://www.turbotax.com/" target="_blank">Free Tax Filing, Efile Taxes, Income Tax Returns</a> – TurboTax.com

IRS Has $1.1 Billion to Give to People Who Haven’t Filed Their 2007 Tax Return

Jeremy Vohwinkle — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:23:55 +0000

Time is running out to claim your share of the $1.1 Billion pool of money the IRS has set aside to give to the million or so people who didn’t file a federal tax return for the 2007 tax year. The amount of money many people stand to receive is a sizable sum. The IRS estimates that at least half of the abandoned returns are for more than $640.

In addition to the refund, those who failed to qualify are often lower income filers who may be missing out on the earned income tax credit. That’s even more money left on the table. But most people who qualify are those who simply thought they didn’t make enough money in 2007 to make it worthwhile to file. College students and the like who may have only made a small amount of money during the year and weren’t required to file, but even so, they are still eligible for a refund.

So, how do you go about getting your old 2007 unclaimed return? Well, you have to file your 2007 income tax return by April 18^th, 2011. As you can see, that means time is running out. Once that deadline passes, that money will be gone forever. If you do decide to finally claim your 2007 refund, remember that your check will be held until the IRS has received your 2008 and 2009 tax returns as well. And, if you owe other federal debts, child support or back taxes, the refund will be applied to those amounts.

TurboTax iPad App Helps You Tap Your Way to a Tax Refund

turbotaxcolleen — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:08:15 +0000

Great news if you have an iPad and still need to file your taxes. Today, we announced that TurboTax now has a new app for the iPad- combining the unparalleled ease and accuracy of TurboTax with the convenience and portability of the iPad. TurboTax is the first and only app that lets taxpayers prepare and e-file their federal and state tax returns using only an iPad. So now you can tap, tap, tap your way to a refund.

Watch a short video of the iPad app in action:

Optimized for the iPad, the app lets users choose whether to work in landscape or portrait view and gives them the freedom to work on their taxes anytime and anywhere, even when they’re on the go.

Like all TurboTax products, TurboTax on the iPad guides people step-by-step through their returns to their maximum refund. Customers can also e-file their return from the iPad and get a refund in as little as eight days with direct deposit.

To try it out, taxpayers can download the mobile app for free from the Apple App store and pay when they are done. Customers begin in TurboTax Deluxe, starting at $29.99 and based on their tax situation, and can choose TurboTax Premier or TurboTax Home & Business for an additional cost. State tax preparation is additional. All pricing includes e-filing at no additional cost.

After they have filed their taxes, for a true end-to-end iPad TurboTax tax experience, taxpayers can check the status of their federal tax refund based on IRS projections with the free MyTaxRefund iPad app.

Tax mobile apps….how about that?

turbotaxcolleen — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:00:52 +0000

Whether you want to pay for your morning coffee, kill some time with angry birds or check your latest financial situation (can I really afford those boots?), apps are becoming a part of our daily lives. Same goes for your taxes. TurboTax now offers mobile apps to help you keep on top of your taxes. Three easy-to-use apps let you forecast, file and track your tax refund from the palm of your hand.

TaxCaster – Want to know how big your tax refund is going to be? TaxCaster is a free tax calculator app that will give you a quick tax estimate. Just enter basic information about you, your income and tax deductions to get a good idea if you will owe money or – hopefully – get a nice big tax refund. (iPhone, Android, WP7, WordPress plugin)

: TaxCaster app helps to quickly estimate a tax refund

SnapTax – Prepare and file your taxes on your phone. Available nationwide and designed for taxpayers with simple tax returns (1040EZ), SnapTax allows you to snap a photo of your W-2, answer a few simple questions, review your return and e-file your federal and state tax return directly from your phone. Download and try for free, pay $14.99 when you prepare and are ready to file. (iPhone, Android)

: SnapTax: Prepare and file taxes from your phone!

MyTaxRefund – Wondering “Where’s my refund?” MyTaxRefund, a free and easy app, is available to any taxpayer that has e-filed their federal tax return. MyTaxRefund shows you the IRS projected status of your e-filed, federal tax return, tells you if your tax return has been accepted by the IRS and when the IRS estimates you’ll get your federal tax refund. (iPhone, iPad)

: MyTaxRefund helps keep track of a federal refund.

Apps can bring a little bit of fun and definitely convenience to your daily routine, so why not use them to help with your taxes too.

TurboTax Employees Connect with Customers

TurboTaxBlogTeam — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 04:02:23 +0000

Ever wonder who’s behind your TurboTax software? We have more than a thousand employees who build and support TurboTax. They’re tax experts, engineers, product managers and developers, customer support agents and lots of other folks who work hard to make TurboTax easy.

Each of these employees has the opportunity to connect directly with customers so they can better understand what questions you have and to learn more about how we can make TurboTax even better. In fact, more than 85 percent of all TurboTax employees spend time with customers – that’s true across the team, from the GM of the TurboTax business down.

Last week, during one of the busiest filing periods, TurboTax employees from every part of the organization came together to help customers. They took time out of their day job to answer questions via phone, chat, email, even through Twitter.

There’s nothing more important to us than helping our customers. It’s part of what makes Intuit a great place to work. Our focus on delighting you.

The TurboTax All Star Celebrity Treasure Hunt on NBC

turbotaxcolleen — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:00:20 +0000

If you’ve watched any TV lately, chances are you’ve seen an ad or two for TurboTax. You may have even caught some of the ads that feature talent from the NBC Universal shows in customized ads. This week, TurboTax will be sponsoring a first ever “primetime “ sponsorship takeover by an advertiser, with a “show within a show” event. Tune in on Sunday 1/30 to watch the NBC airing of “National Treasure” (8 to 11 p.m. ET/PT) …and be sure to watch the commercials!

The ‘All Star Celebrity Treasure Hunt’ hosted by Brooke Burns, takes place during the commercial breaks, and will pit three teams against each other in a challenging competition for the chance to win $50,000 for their designated charity. The teams include award-winning recording artist and actress Brandy Norwood, actress Lisa Rinna (“Dancing with the Stars”), and Jeremy Roenick, a former National Hockey League player and NBC analyst.

Just watching TV could earn you some cool prizes. Viewers can play along throughout the night at http://www.NBC.com/TurboTax for their own chance to win $25,000 and other unique prizes. There are also multiple opportunities to win cool prizes online through April 18.

This special event incorporates how TurboTax provides easy, expert guidance to help people get their maximum refund. For example, the same way that the GPS system guides the ‘All Star Celebrity Treasure Hunt’ teams to their destinations, TurboTax helps guide taxpayers to their own treasure by identifying all the deductions and credits to which they are entitled.

For more information or to play along, go to http://NBC.com/TurboTax

Tax Time Savings Just Got Easier

TurboTaxBlogTeam — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:00:25 +0000

An exciting new savings opportunity is launching this tax season: the ability for all taxpayers to save a portion of their tax refund into U.S. Series I Savings Bonds. You don’t need a bank account to save some of your refund with bonds. And the best part is you can use a portion of your refund to gift bonds to your loved ones.

Savings is hard, especially in this economy, but tax time savings bonds provide an easy, simple and accessible opportunity to save a little bit today for your future and the future of your loved ones.

There are a lot of great reasons to buy bonds at tax time:

1. You only need $50 to get started. Choose to save as little as $50 of your tax refund with a bond.

2. Tax time makes it simple. Just choose the amount you want to save and you’ll receive your bonds in the mail.

3. You earn interest right away. Your money starts growing immediately.

4. Bonds are safe. U.S. Series I Savings Bonds will never lose value and are backed by the U.S. Government.

5. Bonds have no fees. There are no fees to buy or cash in your bond.

6. Gift savings to your loved ones. Bonds can be purchased in someone else’s name – so you can help jumpstart the savings and dreams of the people you care about.

TurboTax customers can follow the simple directions in product and elect to save a portion of your refund into U.S. Savings Bonds for yourself and your loved ones. To learn more about tax time savings bonds visit www.bondsmakeiteasy.org.

This is a guest post by Sakira Abbi. Sarika Abbi is a Savings Initiative Specialist at Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund, a non-profit organization working to help all families improve their financial security. D2D Fund, in collaboration with its partners, launched the campaign “Saving is Hard. Bonds Make it Easy” to build awareness of tax time savings bonds and to help encourage all Americans to invest a part of their tax refund in U.S. Savings Bonds.

Giving Back this Holiday Season – Let TurboTax Help

TTaxChels — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:11:50 +0000

As we’ve been reminding you, there are many things you can do to before the end of the year to minimize your tax burden. Charitable donations made before Dec. 31 are another easy way to lower your tax bill and give back to the community.

Below are five tips for making the most out of your charitable giving this year:

Consider the types of charities you want to give to. What really moves you and makes you want to give?
Make sure your pick an organization that is eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions so that your contributions count.
Remember that December 31, 2010 is the deadline for making charitable contributions count on this year’s tax return .
Some out-of-pocket expenses like parking, supplies, and mileage driven to and from volunteering at a qualifying charity are deductible.
Make sure to keep receipts for both cash and in-kind charitable donations. Every receipt should include the charity name, date, amount of your donation and the resale value of any items you may have received for your contribution.

We’re also pleased to announced that through the end of 2010, TurboTax will donate up to $100,000 to a selection of charities on behalf of consumers. Causes range from emergency preparedness to lending a helping hand to America’s youth. Simply visit the TurboTax Facebook Page or givinggivesback.com to find out how you can have TurboTax donate $5 to the charity you select.

TurboTax 2010: The Easy, Fast Way to Your Biggest Possible Tax Refund

TurboTaxBlogTeam — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:10:09 +0000

December means holiday shopping, cold weather and the first signs of tax season. And to kick off the month, starting today, you can find TurboTax 2010 online, just click here, and in retail stores.

So what’s new in TurboTax 2010? Here are a few of the highlights:

Greater Ease and Accuracy

TurboTax 2010 has expanded the ability to automatically transfer essential tax information from your last year’s return and from hundreds of thousands of employers and financial institutions. Instead of typing in wage, interest, dividend, stock transactions, and mortgage information, you can instantly transfer that data and simply confirm it’s correct.

Eliminating more manual data entry, TurboTax is now able to transfer:

Wage, salary, investment and mortgage information – the same data the IRS receives – from more than 250,000 employers and 300 financial institutions, banks and credit unions.
Tax and personal information from last year’s tax return prepared on different software into your 2010 tax return via PDF.
Interest income from financial institutions, banks and credit unions by connecting with your Mint.com accounts.

Customized Guidance and Recommendations

Based on all the information TurboTax is able to transfer and answers to a few simple questions, TurboTax will guide you step-by-step through a customized preparation process to help make sure you get every deduction and credit to which you are entitled. Whether it’s $1,757 for a college education, $3,000 for triplets or $2,351 for a new hybrid car, TurboTax is going to make sure you get every dollar you deserve.

This year, the unique GPS feature in TurboTax provides additional guidance and recommendations, based on your individual tax situation. For example, taxpayers may not know which of the 16 different education deductions and credits will get them to their maximum refund. But TurboTax does. By doing hundreds of calculations and recommending the best choice, TurboTax makes tax preparation even easier.

Better, Faster Answers

Have questions along the way? Streamlined and integrated help puts answers at your fingertips. With a single click, TurboTax quickly searches and brings together all the relevant answers from thousands of FAQs, articles and the TurboTax Live Community.

You can also speak with TurboTax customer support and a tax expert if you’d prefer.

Fast Refunds

We know getting your refund quickly is important, so this year TurboTax offers more ways for you to get your refunds as quickly as possible. For free, IRS electronic filing is the fastest, easiest way to get your federal refund, in as little as eight days with direct deposit. You can also choose to put your refund on the TurboTax Refund Card, a pre-paid debit card.

Vera Gibbons Simplifies Taxes

veragibbons — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:30:55 +0000

Allow me to introduce myself – I’m the newest TurboTax contributor, Vera Gibbons.

You may know me from MSNBC, where I work as an on air Financial Analyst. You’ll find me on set every Saturday (with anchor, Alex Witt), and occasionally during the week, depending on what the “news du jour” is. My job, essentially, is to decipher the economic data and explain to viewers why they should care, and how things like financial reform, healthcare reform, budget deficits, a weak dollar and quantitative easing affects them.

That’s what I’m good at – breaking down complex subjects, and speaking in a language that anyone can understand.

My background as a print reporter – I have written for Inc., SmartMoney, Kiplinger’s, cnbc.com, the New York Times; I currently write for Real Simple, Reuters, and AOL’s walletpop.com – has served me well. I have interviewed everyone from economists to fund managers and written about everything from the housing market to inflation.

And now: taxes.

This year, things may seem more complicated than ever, particularly the uncertainty surrounding provisions that expired at the end of 2009. Not to mention, the many provisions that are due to expire at the end of this year: Washington has done a lot of talking about extending them, but they haven’t done it yet (tick tock).

Any idea what any of this means to you and your overall tax strategy? Are there steps you can take now to ease the tax burden down the road? I’m here to help you figure this – and all things tax-related!

Feel free to leave any questions, comments, concerns here, and I’ll try to make this season a little less onerous.

Vera

Taxing questions? TurboTax has tax answers…for free!

turbotaxcolleen — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:15:57 +0000

Starting today, almost an entire month earlier than last year, taxpayers with taxing questions can get an easy – and free – answer from a TurboTax tax expert.

TurboTax tax experts will be on the phones to answer one personal, tax-related question for free through Jan. 31 at www.FreeTaxQuestion.com. Anyone can submit a question – whether you’re a TurboTax customer or not. Simply submit a tax question online, and you’ll receive a personalized, one-on-one call back at a time you request.

TurboTax is moving up its annual free offer into November to help taxpayers get a jump on last-minute tax deductions or to better understand what they can do now in the face of pending tax legislation.

Whether someone has had a baby, lost a job, or simply wants to know where to enter information in tax software, TurboTax experts are here to help answer the top questions on taxpayers’ minds

Our experts are IRS-Enrolled Agents, Certified Public Accountants and Tax Preparers with advanced education and experience in tax law and return preparation.

This is the fourth year that TurboTax has offered Free Tax Question.

There’s no purchase necessary to participate, but it is subject to availability and for a limited time, so be sure to take advantage of the free offer with your taxing question.

Answers Anytime.

If you happen to miss out on the free tax question or don’t have a question now, then be sure to check out TurboTax Live Community. If you’ve never experienced Live Community, you’re in for a treat. It’s fast, easy and free. The Live Community offers year-round, anytime access to online answers from a community of millions of TurboTax customers and tax experts. Just type in a question and immediately find answers.

Giving taxpayers free options for their questions is just another way TurboTax makes it easy for people to get their biggest refund possible.

TaxCaster Mobile App for Windows Phone 7 Arrives November 8!

turbotaxcolleen — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:39:21 +0000

TurboTax today unveiled TaxCaster, our first app for Windows Phone 7 (WP7), at Microsoft’s annual Professional Developers Conference. TaxCaster provides a quick tax estimate so you can get a good idea if you will owe money or – hopefully – get a nice big tax refund. You can enter exact amounts or estimates to see what your fate will be come April 15.

[taxcaster]

TaxCaster takes full advantage of Microsoft’s easily styled controls and animations to create a compelling user experience. The pivot control enables you to quickly navigate through the application to enter your tax data. TaxCaster builds on the momentum of Intuit’s innovative, multi-platform suite of mobile offerings for consumers and small businesses. We expect to introduce several new WP7 apps in the coming months.

TaxCaster is expected to be available for free download to Windows Phone 7 users in the U.S. on Nov. 8. Updated versions for the current tax year for all mobile platforms, including Android and iPhone apps, will be available in mid November. Bloggers can also download it as a plugin here.

Distributing Social: Widget Delivers Free Tax Help

TTaxChels — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:10:42 +0000

Name of Entry: TurboTax Live Community

Name of company entering: Intuit, Inc.

Category: Supporting

How does a seasonal business with 800 employees scale help to meet the needs of more than 20 million customers? Simple. Create a community that enables customers to help each other.

Since its launch in 2007, the TurboTax Live Community has helped more than 10 million unique customers get free, contextually relevant answers to their tax questions while contributing to an improved customer experience. In that time, there have been 27 million views of questions and answers in the community.

Who would want to answer questions in a tax community?

Millions of TurboTax customers actively participate in the Community, asking and answering questions, creating a robust, long-tail knowledge base that is easily accessed and searched.
90 non-employee super users – this group of extraordinary volunteer experts contributed over 115,000 answers last year alone. To make them even more special, this group offers their expertise for free: not only does TurboTax not pay them; they also do not sell any services of any kind through the community.
The vast majority of all TurboTax employees (650+) contribute answers, including the GM and VPs of Product Management, Customer Experience, Engineering, and Marketing.

The next step for the Live Community was to increase awareness and use. After conducting a holistic review of online channels, the team chose display advertising as the right venue to test a new way to bring the Live Community experience to users all over the Internet, wherever and whenever they need the help.

Business results:

The goal with this sort of social/advertising mashup is usage. So did people use the Live Community support TurboTax offered?

To catch people at the time and place they most need tax help, TurboTax did a first-ever custom integration of Live Community into the Business and Finance section of Yahoo Answers – and consumers really reacted. The Live Community integration saw a 58% higher engagement rate than when featured on other Internet locations.

To reach an even broader audience TurboTax ran its award winning “TurboTron” rich media unit on the 2010 Pro Bowl and Super Bowl weekends on Yahoo, AOL, MSN homepages. This ad was seen over 800M times! With many interactive experiences to choose from in this customized ad unit, the Live Community was the most engaging part of the experience with a 61% engagement rate compared to the next closest (of 5 panels of content).

TurboTax Embraces Customer Reviews for Viral Growth in its Biggest Online Year

TTaxChels — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:26:10 +0000

Name of Entry: TurboTax Reviews

Name of company entering: Intuit, Inc.

Category: Energizing

What are TurboTax Reviews?

At TurboTax, we believe the most powerful recommendation for any product comes from a friend or someone you know. This year, TurboTax took that naturally occurring offline behavior to the web by enabling customers to share their tax filing experience with their Friends, as well as customers looking for reviews on TurboTax.com.

What Makes TurboTax Reviews an Effective Use of a Social Application?

TurboTax is approaching reviews in a new way: taking a fairly “traditional” user generated asset (reviews) and adding in a layer of social networking on top to allow our customers to be our best sales people- and it’s working). TurboTax provided the platform for customers to be the gasoline in a reviews engine filled with over a hundred thousand of unbiased user-generated reviews on TurboTax.com. After customers contributed their TurboTax review, they were able to share via a “Publish to Facebook” option. At the end of their TurboTax tax filing experience, customers also had another option for sharing their excitement about finishing their tax return via “Friendcasting,” the act of posting a short blurb to your Facebook newsfeed.

TurboTax Reviews drove the following business results:

• “Friendcasting” is four times more engaging with a 30% higher conversion rate than banner ads

• Sharing on Facebook drove acquisition with a 25% higher new customer mix than online advertising

• Customers posted more than 100,000 unbiased reviews on TurboTax.com

• TurboTax Web units increased by 18% in 2010

Learn More About TurboTax Reviews:

See Reviews in action.

Read another perspective on TurboTax Reviews.

@TeamTurboTax Provides Customers with Support and Resources During Busiest Tax Season

TTaxChels — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:08:52 +0000

Name of Entry: @TeamTurboTax

Name of company entering: Intuit

Category: Supporting

What is @TeamTurboTax?

TurboTax is the nation’s leading tax preparation software from Intuit Inc. TurboTax makes it easy for Americans to prepare and file both federal and state income tax returns quickly and accurately.

Since it was founded in the mid-1980s, TurboTax has relied on word of mouth marketing as its primary growth driver. Over the past four years, TurboTax has increased its presence in social media channels like Twitter as an additional way to engage with its more than 20 million customers. This year, TurboTax launched @TeamTurboTax, a group of 40 tax and technical experts with a primary mission: help customers on Twitter during their point of need during tax season.

What Makes it an Effective Use of Social Applications?

TurboTax has a track record of using communities to help customers get answers to their tax and technical support questions. Its Live Community has been used by more than 10 million people since it was introduced three years ago.

This year, TurboTax created the @TeamTurboTax Twitter presence, as well as a process to enable the company to quickly and proactively address customer matters in short form. And because Twitter is a public social media tool, TurboTax has been able to better meet their customers where they’re at, providing help almost immediately after a question is raised.

@TeamTurboTax scaled existing TurboTax efforts by 20 times during last year’s tax season, bringing 40 tax and technical experts to customers in need of help on Twitter. The @TeamTurboTax team drove the following business results:

• 48% effectiveness in helping complete tax returns

• 46% follower rate of Twitter users specifically seeking tax help

• 71% likelihood of customers to recommend TurboTax

• 4 minute response time on average while helping customers all tax season

Learn More About @TeamTurboTax:

Get to know our rockstars.

Read another perspective on @TeamTurboTax.

A Letter to Our Customers

TurboTaxBlogTeam — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:34:49 +0000

To our customers,

I deeply apologize for the pain we have caused those of you affected by this week’s outage. We hold ourselves to the highest standards in dependability and customer service, and over the past two days, we have failed to live up to those expectations.

My leaders and I have spoken to a number of you and there is simply no excuse for having such a negative impact on you.

It is our priority to work with those of you who are affected and, where we can, make things right. We have all-hands on deck to help you resolve the issues caused by this outage.

I want to share with you what we know at this time about what happened. The disruption occurred during a routine maintenance procedure. An accidental but severe power failure during that procedure affected our primary and backup systems, taking a number of Intuit’s websites and services offline.

We worked to restore our sites and services as quickly as possible while bringing services back in the safest, most reliable way. We understand your frustration and are sorry it took so long. We understand the important role our services play in your business and life. And we take that responsibility very seriously.

I also want to share that we have no evidence of a security breach or attack on our servers. And at this time, we do not believe there was any damage or loss to customer data.

At this stage, we have teams monitoring the performance of applications and further investigating the cause of the problem so that we can learn from this outage and prevent it from happening again.

I want to thank you for your business and your patience. We will work our hardest to earn back your trust.

Thank you,

Brad

President & CEO

Intuit, Inc.

What Does Healthcare Reform Law Mean for Businesses?

Elle Martinez — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:39:35 +0000

Business owners and others are analyzing the healthcare reform law to see what new adjustments to expect to make the transition smoother. Many people are familiar with the healthcare reform law to require insurance companies to cover children with pre-existing conditions, but a new provision in Section 9006 that is expected to start in 2012 has been given some attention by the media this month.

Use of 1099s Expanded in 2012

Starting in 2012, business owners will see the use of 1099 forms increase as they conduct their work as usual. As of right now, U.S. tax law requires businesses to complete and submit every year a 1099 for contractors paid at least $600 for services. The new 1099 requirement will apply to corporations (non-tax-exempt) in 2012; it had already applied to non-corporate taxpayers.

In 2012, the law will expand 1099 requirements to include corporations and individuals. It also includes a provision that a 1099 must be submitted to the IRS for both services rendered and goods bought costing $600 or more during the year.

There are two ways to look at this new provision and how it will affect businesses and taxes. Either way, this change with 1099s will come with more documentation.

More Documentation, More Compliance

Some people, including an aide in the Senate Finance committee , see this as an opportunity to provide some revenue without raising taxes. It is certainly a way to encourage business owners to keep better and more detailed records of their transactions. This change can help increase revenue as businesses report income and expenses more accurately.

As of right now, small businesses tally up receipts for business expenses and include them on their tax returns. With more documentation, this provision may help cut down on fraudulent business expenses being submitted to the IRS, which will hopefully mean an increase in revenue received.

More Documentations, More Headaches

For some businesses, this could be a burdensome requirement, adding a huge amount of paperwork. Looking at the wording of the new provision, businesses will have to get tax identification numbers from everyone- vendors, independent contractors, and companies to be able to comply. This expansion can include hotel stays and gas station fill-ups, which will need 1099s for each supplier.

IRS Regulation

How will section 9006 be implemented come tax time? The IRS will release regulations on the new law some time in the next year and we’ll see if any exclusions will be made for business owners.

Taxes are done…now go celebrate and have some fun!

turbotaxcolleen — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:43:26 +0000

So maybe it’s not your 10 year high school reunion or your 40^th birthday, but finishing your taxes is a milestone nonetheless. And, even better, it’s a reason to celebrate! Here’s some 7 ways to celebrate Spring and your taxes being done!

Take time to relax. If taxes had you stressed or even if they didn’t, the best way to unwind is with a trip to the Spa. Looks for weekday deals or even packages that might include multiple treatments or meals.

Take me out to the ballgame. Along with the American obligation of taxes comes the All-American spring-time ritual of the beginning of baseball season. What’s better than a hot dog, peanuts and that “1,2,3 strikes you’re out” to celebrate?

Spring is in the air. Along with Spring comes new life, like baby animals and flowers. Plan an outing to your local zoo to check out the newest additions or even try the botanical gardens/national parks. It’s a great way to get closer to nature.

Music makes the heart feel good. There are lots of options if you look around. Take in a concert or outdoor festival. Many are free and a great way to expand your musical palate.

Splurge a little…you deserve it. If you are getting a refund, as about 80% of Americans do, pull aside a small amount to splurge on something you wouldn’t normally do. Try a new restaurant, stay at a cool hotel, or even rent a convertible for a day.

Happy hour with friends. You’ve been procrastinating about lots of things lately, so no more excuses…friends can often be the best way to celebrate any occasion. Why not tax time.

Go for a ride on a coaster. Now that the weather is getting warmer for most, nothing gets the adrenaline flowing like a ride on a thrilling roller coaster or free fall from 100 ft in the air. Amusement parks are a great way to have some fun. Investing in a season pass might be the best way to go…and you get to be a kid again.

IRS Extends Tax Deadline for Taxpayers affected by the Northeast Floods

TurboTax Ashley — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:04:00 +0000

The IRS is extending a helping hand to residents of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, West Virginia and New Jersey that have been affected by the recent flooding. The fedreal government declared several counties in these states a national disaster area. If you are living in one of these counties the IRS has extended your federal tax filing deadline to May 11th to:

File their federal and state income tax returns, whether e-filed or mailed.
Make quarterly estimated payments normally due on April 15.
Contribute to an IRA for the year 2009.

Here is a list, by state, of the counties who now have extended tax filing deadlines:

Rhode Island

Federal – The IRS has extended the federal filing deadline for all residents EXCEPT Bristol County. Residents of Bristol County must still file by the April 15th deadline.

State – The state of Rhode Island has extended the state filing deadline for ALL residents.

Massachusetts

Federal and State - The federal and state tax filing deadlines have been extended for Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk and Worcester counties.

West Virginia

Federal and State – The federal and state tax filing deadlines have been extended for Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Mercer and Raleigh counties.

New Jersey

Federal and State – The federal and state tax filing deadlines have been extended for Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, and Union counties.

What you need to know if you live in one of the counties above?

If you live in a disaster are its important to know that if you experienced any personal property losses not covered by either insurance or government reimbursement you might qualify to claim them as casualty loss deductions. The major disaster designation allows you to claim such deductions on either their 2009 or 2010 federal tax returns. If you already filed your 2009 tax return you can amend your return to claim any casualty loss deductions you received. If you filed your taxes with TurboTax it is free to amend your 2009 tax return.

The IRS is also waiving the fee and expedite requests for copies of past years returns for these individuals. Just fill out Form 4506 Request for Copy of Tax Return online, print it, then write Disaster Designation in red ink at the top and submit it to the IRS. The address to mail the request is listed on the instructions below the form.

TurboTax updates software with additional guidance for CSA/CSF 1099R

TurboTaxBlogTeam — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:05:54 +0000

We recently became aware of a situation in TurboTax where a small number of customers, less than one tenth of one percent, may have inadvertently entered their health insurance premium information twice. As a result, these customers may have underpaid their taxes.

We have already updated the TurboTax interview with additional clarifying language to eliminate any possible confusion for taxpayers.

This will only affect you if ALL of the following apply to your tax situation:

1. You receive a CSA or CSF 1099R

2. You had health insurance premiums paid on your behalf by the pension administrator

3. You had medical expenses that exceeded the 7.5% AGI limitation

4. You enter your health insurance premiums twice – once in the income section and once in the deductions section

5. You itemized your deductions

We take this very seriously and are ready to assist customers who may be impacted by penalties and interest, which we will reimburse consistent with our accuracy guarantee.

If you think that you might have been affected, this FAQ will provide you with additional information.

We are continuing to work closely with the IRS. Their response to taxpayers is below:

“The IRS recently learned about a potential issue for a small number of federal government civil service retirees who used Intuit’s TurboTax software product. Based on initial information, we believe that this issue could potentially impact a very small number of taxpayers.

This situation involves a very specific scenario involving the Form 1099-R, where individuals may have interpreted the software-prompted question in a way that double counts their health premiums. In order for the issue to appear, the individual would have to also itemize their deductions on Schedule A, and claim health expenses above 7.5 percent of their income. Based on the scenario involved, we expect the number of impacted taxpayers to be very small.

Intuit is in the process of identifying the taxpayers who may have been affected and will reach out to them. Taxpayers who think they may be in this situation should contact TurboTax for assistance. Taxpayers who discover errors on their tax returns should allow the IRS to complete processing of those returns before filing the Form 1040X to amend the returns. The IRS will continue to work closely with Intuit and taxpayers affected by this issue.

Generally, using computer software to prepare a return not only produces a faster refund, but also enables taxpayers to avoid math errors or inadvertently omitted schedules or forms. A return prepared by software and e-filed is generally far more accurate than a manually prepared return.”