Entertainment Industry Income tax help

Every working Entertainer in the US is required to file his or her income tax returns on time and this means going through every receipt and transaction made throughout the previous year to make sure that everything is properly and accurately reported.

Unfortunately, filing your income tax return on time is a necessary hassle if you don't want to be hounded by the IRS for neglecting your duties. Entertainers should obtain income tax help from a tax expert as an enrolled agent to make this much easier for you.

Income tax help for Entertainers can come in several forms. These days, you can find a number of software dedicated to helping taxpayers get their returns in order. There are also applications that are designed to calculate your tax dues and also provide you with easier ways of reporting deductions and income for the year.

Income tax help for Entertainers mostly come from experienced tax professionals. Enrolled Agents, CPAs and tax attorneys usually offer income tax help to high-income entertainers and businesses who may need more help in reporting complicated transactions related to their tax returns. An experienced tax professional will make sure that everything is accounted for and that the IRS will not find any reason to doubt the credibility of the data that you have presented in your income tax return.

If you're a low-wage earner, you can also get income tax help free of charge through a local taxpayer assistance center. However, slots tend to fill up quickly so make sure to schedule an appointment as early as possible. There are also universities and non-profit organizations that establish tax clinics during the tax season to offer assistance to those who may be encountering tax problems with the IRS.

Going for professional services

Hiring an enrolled agent or a certified public accountant for Entertainer income tax help is the best way to survive the taxation season unscathed. It takes the load off your shoulders because you will have someone else to help you file the right documents and fill out the forms correctly.

It's important to note that certified public accountants and tax lawyers are only allowed to operate in the state where they are licensed. If you have businesses or transactions outside the state, you may not be able to obtain proper representation with your local accountant. On the other hand, an enrolled agent is allowed to provide income tax help in practically every state. This is why going for an enrolled agent for income tax filing assistance can be a wiser move.

Tax guidelines for the entertainment industry

Here are a few tips on filing your income tax return:

• Make sure to gather all your pertinent tax documents long before the deadline for filing for this year. This will include your Form W-2 as well as 1099 forms as they apply. You will also need to have other documents with you such as gain/loss reports for investments that you have sold or obtained during the previous year, as well as your summary of tax deductibles.


• Set aside some time to focus on your tax return. Schedule an appointment with your enrolled agent in advance to get this settled. You might want to do this as soon as possible because your tax pro is going to be really busy as the deadline looms near.


• You might also want to note the important dates surrounding the filing of income tax returns. Mark the deadlines on your calendar so you don't forget them.

For entertainment income tax help, contact Mike Habib, EA. Mike Habib is a Los Angeles Enrolled Agent who can help you get your income tax return properly prepared, or resolve any tax problem. Contact us at 1-877-788-2937 through this website for more inquiries.

Music Related Links - Entertainment

Billboard.com
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Music Industry News And Events - Chart Attack
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Pollstar
For over 25 years, Pollstar has provided music business professionals with worldwide concert tour schedules, ticket sales results, music industry contact directories, trade news and unique specialized data services.

American Federation of Musicians (AF of M)
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada unite professional musicians through their Locals.

American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) is a democratic union, governed by its members.

The Songwriters Guild of America
The Guild takes a stand on every issue of importance to songwriters and the music industry in general, including home taping, source licensing, derivative rights, author's moral rights, the deductibility of business expenses, compulsory license, and copyright registration fees.

Grammy.com
The founding members of the Recording Academy wanted to recognize and celebrate the artistic achievement of not only talented musicians and singers but also important, behind-the-scenes contributors such as producers and engineers.

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry.

National Music Publishers Association/Harry Fox Agency
Currently representing more than 600 American music publishers, NMPA has worked to interpret copyright law, educate the public about licensing, and safeguard the interests of its members.

National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
The National Association of Broadcasters is a full-service trade association that promotes and protects the interests of radio and television broadcasters in Washington and around the world.

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
ASCAP is a membership association of more than 120,000 U.S. composers, songwriters and publishers of every kind of music and hundreds of thousands worldwide. ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works.

Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI)
BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music. The non-profit-making company, founded in 1940, collects license fees on behalf of those American creators it represents, as well as thousands of creators from around the world who chose BMI for representation in the United States.

SESAC Inc.
SESAC was founded in 1930, making it the second oldest performing rights organization in the United States.

Motion Picture Related Links - Entertainment

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS)
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American Film Institute (AFI)
The American Film Institute (AFI) is the nation's preeminent arts organization dedicated to advancing and preserving the art of the moving image. Since 1967, AFI has served as America's voice for film, television, video, and the digital arts, with innovative programs in education, training, exhibition, preservation, and new technology.

Independent Film & Television Alliance
The Independent Film & Television Alliance ®, formerly known as the American Film Marketing Association ("AFMA®"), is the trade association for the independent film and television industry .

Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI)
The Association of Film Commissioners International acts as a liaison between the production industry and member film commissions, provides assistance in the development of film commissions globally, and other services for its members.

Independent Media Arts Alliance - Canada
Membership is open to any non-profit organization in Canada whose mandate is to encourage, promote and facilitate the independent production, distribution and exhibition of films, videos and electronic media works.

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its international counterpart, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) serve as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries, domestically through the MPAA and internationally through the MPA.

National Film Board of Canada
Created in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a public agency that produces and distributes films and other audiovisual works which reflect Canada to Canadians and the rest of the world.

Box Office
Box Office is a publication focusing on the movies, film, movie stars, theatre, and the film industry.

Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America represents more than 12,000 members working in U.S. cities and abroad. Their creative work is represented in theatrical, industrial, educational and documentary films, as well as, videos and commercials.

Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Reporter is a publication that provides current entertainment news in film, television, music, international, and web/new media.

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AFL-CIO American Federation of Labor
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AFTRA National Office
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) is a national labor union affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Its headquarters are in New York City and there are 36 local offices throughout the country.

Directors Guild of America (DGA)
The Directors Guild of America represents more than 12,000 members working in U.S. cities and abroad. Their creative work is represented in theatrical, industrial, educational and documentary films, as well as, videos and commercials.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
The IATSE is the labor union representing technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry, including live theatre, film and television production, and trade shows.

Motion Picture & Television Fund
To enrich the lives of people in our Southern California entertainment community by continuously evolving to meet their heath and human services needs.

Radio and Television News Directors Association & Foundation
The Radio and Television News Directors Association & Foundation promotes excellence in electronic journalism through research, education and training for news professionals and journalism students.

Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild and the people who represent it have become a powerful voice for performers. The Guild has come a long way over the years with the establishment of 20 distinctive branches around the country all serving actors.

SAG Pension & Health
The website for members of the Screen Actors Guild regarding their pension and health benefits.

Society of Singers
The Society of Singers is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization established in 1984. It is a group of concerned individuals devoted to addressing the needs of professional singers worldwide.

Women in Film
Women In Film's purpose is to empower, promote, nurture and mentor women in the entertainment, communication and media industries to achieve their highest potential through a network of valuable contacts, educational programs and events.

Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America, made up of two unions - the Writers Guild, East and the Writers Guild, West- brings together some 11,000 professionals who are the primary creators of what is seen or heard on television and film in the U.S.

Television Related Links - Entertainment

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS)
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences - founded one month after network television was born in 1946 - is a non-profit corporation devoted to the advancement of telecommunications arts and sciences and to fostering creative leadership in the telecommunications industry.

Association of Independent Commercial Producers Inc. (AICP)
Founded in 1972, by a small group of television commercial production companies concerned with a single issue, today's AICP has grown to represent exclusively, the interests of United States companies that specialize in producing commercials on various media - film, video, computer - for advertisers and agencies.

Canadian Association of Broadcasters
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) develops industry-wide strategic plans, works to improve the financial health of the industry, and promotes private broadcasting's role as Canada's leading programmer and local service provider.

Corporation of Public Broadcasting
CPB, a private non-profit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is a leader in public broadcasting's transition to digital educational and programming services for the American people.

Hollywood Radio & Television Society
The Hollywood Radio and Television Society is an organization of West Coast executives from the networks, stations, studios, production companies, advertisers, ad agencies, cable companies, media companies, legal firms, publicity agencies, talent and management agencies, performers, services, suppliers and allied fields.

National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
The National Association of Broadcasters is a full-service trade association that promotes and protects the interests of radio and television broadcasters in Washington and around the world.

NATPE- National Association of Television Programming Executives
NATPE's mission is a commitment to furthering the quality and quantity of content, which means offering the wealth of our resources and experience to every content creator, no matter the medium.

Broadcasting & Cable
In print for almost 70 years, Broadcasting & Cable covers the television and radio business for the field s decision-makers. Along with its continually updated web site and daily fax newsletters, Broadcasting & Cable tracks developments in law, regulation, finance, programming, advertising and technology.

Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America represents more than 12,000 members working in U.S. cities and abroad. Their creative work is represented in theatrical, industrial, educational and documentary films, as well as, videos and commercials.

Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Reporter is a publication that provides current entertainment news in film, television, music, international, and web/new media.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. The FCC's jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. possessions.

Theatre Related Links - Entertainment

Actors' Equity Association
Equity negotiates minimum wages and working conditions, administers contracts, and enforces the provisions of our various agreements with theatrical employers across the country.

Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers
The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers is a national independent labor union representing members throughout the United States and abroad.

If you have received an "Intent to Levy" letter or a "Notice of Levy" letter from the IRS then you cannot afford to wait any longer! Do something to resolve your tax debt. It makes far more sense, and will probably be less costly in the long run, to resolve your tax problem with the IRS now, rather than dealing with the potential embarrassment and financial burden of having your employer garnish and levy your wage paycheck or your bank levy and freeze your bank account after receiving an IRS levy order to withhold funds from your bank account or your paycheck.

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Prepared Remarks of IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman to New York State Bar Association Taxation Section Annual Meeting in New York City, Jan. 26, 2010

It's a great honor to address the New York State Bar Association Taxation Section. I look forward to beginning a dialogue with you that will start - but I trust - not end today. Today, I want to discuss complexity...and more to the point, how we are trying to work smarter to manage complexity. Complex systems abound...from the structure of nature itself... to global economies and international trade...to legal systems...to our own complicated daily lives that seem to defy simplification. Complexity has become a whole field of study and even a cottage industry for authors and consultants trying to make sense of complex business models and operations. Multinational companies need to manage complexity, whether it's their own structures, products, processes, information ...and yes, taxes which are steeped in complexity. And as we do our best to understand and manage complexity, some joke that we have gone from complexity to perplexity. Tax law complexity affects everyone today...from individual taxpayers filing a 1040 form... to wealthy individuals ... to business and corporate taxpayers ...to the IRS itself. More than just collecting the revenue to run the federal government, the IRS has also been tasked with administering a number of large social programs through the Tax Code and implementing significant sections of major pieces of legislation, such as the Economic Stimulus bill and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Mind you, tax law complexity is nothing new. And the Tax Code is already four times longer than War and Peace and grows each year. Now, if you were thinking I was leading up to a speech on tax law simplification, I am sorry to disappoint you. That's a speech for another day and another time. Frankly, we need to deal with today's messy reality that tax law complexity has put on all of our plates. And we must be realistic. In today's global and diverse economy, business and tax laws are going to remain complex. However, that does not mean we have to surrender to complexity or be reduced to tilting at windmills...quite the contrary. At the IRS, we're trying to evolve our programs to deal with an ever more complex world. In short, we are trying to work smarter. By working smarter, we can tease out more certainty and consistency in the application of the tax laws. This greater certainty can benefit both corporations and the IRS. By working smarter, we can be more efficient and make better use of precious resources. Let me give you some examples of how we're trying to match deed to word. In the individual taxpayer arena, we have a number of initiatives that we believe will produce positive results. For example, late last year, we launched the Global High Wealth Industry Group to centralize and focus IRS compliance expertise involving high wealth individuals and their related entities. This is a game-changing strategy for the IRS. Initially, we will be focusing on individuals with tens of millions of dollars of assets or income. Going forward, we will take a unified look at the entire complex web of business entities controlled by a high wealth individual, which will enable us to better assess the risk such arrangements pose to tax compliance. We want to better understand the entire complex economic picture of the enterprise controlled by the wealthy individual and to assess the tax compliance of that overall enterprise. We cannot do this by continuing to approach each tax return in the enterprise as a single and separate entity. We must understand and analyze the entire picture. Our efforts to put a dent in offshore tax evasion also illustrate our working smarter strategy. As you know, we have a lot of activity in this area: from some groundbreaking cases, to our voluntary disclosure program, to legislation being considered by Congress, to increased international cooperation with other governments. We're looking for and finding points of leverage - what some call "nodes" of activity - where multiple people not paying taxes can be detected. Financial institutions are one such potential node of activity. Promoters of evasion schemes are another. Our international enforcement and detection efforts are expanding and becoming better informed. For example, mining for information from the more than 14,700 disclosures that came in during our recent voluntary disclosure program is a way to identify financial institutions, advisors, and others who promoted or otherwise facilitated US persons hiding assets and income offshore and attempted to shirk their tax responsibilities at home. Let me also observe that the ramifications from our offshore compliance efforts and our voluntary disclosure program go far beyond the billions of dollars in revenues we will be collecting from these taxpayers. It will change the conversations that practitioners and tax return preparers will be having with many of their clients this coming tax filing season. Moreover, the real watershed will come over the next 10, 20 and 30 years. Those who came in under the voluntary disclosure program will be in our tax system going forward, and the risk calculus of people thinking about hiding assets overseas to avoid paying taxes has changed dramatically. That protects the US Treasury and our tax base from erosion in the long-term. Working smarter in the international tax arena also requires heightened cooperation and interaction with other countries' tax authorities. Clearly, the success we seek in the international arena cannot be achieved by the US alone. We've already seen positive steps towards greater cooperation among nations, such as in April, when the G-20 heads of state agreed in a show of unity to act against tax jurisdictions that impede legitimate tax enforcement. In addition, we are going to try some new approaches in the international arena. One such approach is the work we are doing to develop a protocol to conduct joint audits with some of our treaty partners. In theory, a joint audit conducted with another country's tax authority and IRS will reduce burden on a corporate taxpayer, who won't need to go through a similar exercise twice, as well as allow for competent authority resolution earlier in the process. Perhaps, we could even have competent authority as part of the audit team itself. It will also ensure that the corporation gives the same information to both tax authorities, reducing opportunities for arbitrage. We are also trying to work smarter in the area of transfer pricing. We have been exploring the transfer pricing area for some time and determined we needed to change the way we do business in this area. From a taxpayer's perspective, it seemed that all too often we were taking too long to resolve transfer pricing issues... that it was difficult for the taxpayer or representative to know who at the Service was responsible for resolving the issue... and that we were not always consistent in our resolution of these issues. From our perspective - while we have a phenomenal cadre of experts in this area - we needed more people with industry specific and transfer pricing expertise to match up with corporate taxpayers and to fully develop the issues, discuss them with taxpayers and their representatives, and ultimately resolve the issues for the large number of taxpayers with transfer pricing issues. In order to address these issues, and ensure organizational consistency and focus, we are establishing a Transfer Pricing Practice within our Large and Mid-Size Business operating division so we can strategically and systematically administer transfer pricing issues. The idea here is to create a group of experts in the transfer pricing area that we can use to coordinate our handling of the most important issues to taxpayers and to us, identify emerging issues and trends, and provide consistency in outcomes in our transfer pricing cases. I believe that at the end of the day, taxpayers and tax authorities pretty much want the same thing out of the tax system. They want certainty regarding a taxpayer's tax obligations sooner rather than later. They want consistent treatment across taxpayers. They want an efficient use of government and taxpayer resources by focusing on the issues and taxpayers that pose the greatest risk. And that's all about working smarter. Working smarter also includes maximizing the use of our resources, while leveraging other players in the tax system to help us ensure compliance with the law. We recently unveiled a major initiative to oversee tax preparers who are an integral part of the tax system. With the complexity of the tax code, more and more Americans now turn to a preparer to help them file their taxes. We estimated that there are somewhere between 900,000 and 1.2 million paid tax return preparers. And making them an integral link to our service and compliance strategies will help us do our job. We announced that we plan to require registration, minimum competency testing, and continuing education of paid tax return preparers. In addition, once we set up and administer a testing process, we will create a public database of preparers, so that taxpayers can find out if they are dealing with a qualified preparer. We are also shifting enforcement resources to focus on preparers. Beginning this filing season we are expanding our "knock and talk" and other programs to visit thousands of preparers to discuss their operations and ways to reduce preparer error rates. The goals of the strategy are to improve service to taxpayers, increase compliance, and enhance the integrity of the overall tax system. I think this creates leverage for us, and is a smart use of our resources. Another important player in the tax system is the Corporate Board of Directors. I have recently been reaching out to corporate board members to discuss the importance of appropriate oversight of tax compliance and I will continue to do outreach in this community. My proposition is simple: Tax expenses are like other major expenses. Manage them too loosely and you give up profit. Manage them too aggressively and there are bad consequences. The board must oversee how management manages them. And that means some level of understanding, a set of policy principles and then a control system of review and reporting that assures the board that their policy is being carried out. Many corporate boards do have a regular dialogue regarding tax risk with their CFOs, tax directors and external tax advisors. My goal is to promote good corporate governance on tax issues and engage the corporate community in a dialogue about the appropriate role of the board of directors in tax risk oversight. This will continue to be a theme of ours. Finally, I want to talk about Transparency.... We have been taking a hard look at transparency regarding business tax issues. Accounting for income taxes and tax risk has changed over the past several years. Accounting for uncertain tax positions is much more articulated now than in the past. And auditing firms are conducting much more extensive reviews of materials used to make decisions on tax reserves reflected in a taxpayer's financial statement. Several months ago, I announced that the IRS was studying these changes and was exploring ways to improve transparency regarding material tax issues so that we can achieve the three objectives of certainty, consistency, and efficiency for us and taxpayers. The IRS is taking a major step towards transparency that I want to announce today related to changes we are proposing to reporting requirements regarding business taxpayers' uncertain tax positions The Announcement we are issuing today does two things. First, it describes proposed reporting requirement at the "time-of-filing." Second, it highlights specific areas where we are requesting public comment and thus serves to further our continuing dialogue with practitioners, business taxpayers, and others regarding how to improve tax administration and compliance regarding many of our nation's business taxpayers. Before I get into the meat of the proposal, let me set some context. Today, we spend up to 25 percent of our time in a large corporate audit searching for issues rather than having a straightforward discussion with the taxpayer about the issues. It would add efficiency to the process if we had access to more complete information earlier in the process regarding the nature and materiality of a taxpayer's uncertain tax positions. The goals of our proposal are simple: to cut down the time it takes to find issues and complete an audit... ensure that both the IRS and taxpayer spend time discussing the law as it applies to their facts, rather than looking for information...and to help us prioritize selection of issues and taxpayers for examination. Let me explain the Announcement and what it means to business taxpayers. Reporting uncertain tax positions would be required at the time a return is filed by certain business taxpayers: those who have both a financial statement prepared under FIN 48 or other similar accounting standards reflecting uncertain tax positions and assets over $10 million. Under the Announcement, these taxpayers would be required to annually disclose uncertain tax positions in the form of a concise description of those positions and the maximum amount of US income tax exposure if the taxpayer's position is not sustained. By concise, we mean a few sentences that inform us of the nature of the issue, and not pages of factual description or legal analysis. Let me say a few things about this proposal. We have taken what I believe is a reasonable approach. We could have asked for more...a lot more... but chose not to. We believe we have crafted a proposal that gives us the information we need to do our job without trying to get in the heads of taxpayers as to the strengths or weaknesses of their positions. We will be looking only for a brief description of the issue and the maximum amount of US income tax exposure. The proposal does not require the taxpayer to disclose the taxpayer's risk assessment or tax reserve amounts. We are asking for a list of issues that the taxpayer has already prepared for financial reporting purposes, in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of tax examinations. We are also looking for the maximum exposure, so we can allocate our exam resources appropriately. We need to have a sense of materiality and whether we should spend exam resources on an issue. We do not believe we will be adding substantial new work or burden on taxpayers. These taxpayers are already required to establish tax reserves for uncertain tax positions in determining their financial statement income under US or foreign accounting standards, such as FIN 48. So the work is already being done. We are asking for more transparency. Just to be clear again, this proposal would not require that taxpayers disclose how strong or weak they regard their tax positions or report to us the amounts they reserved on the books regarding those positions. And as part of this proposal, the IRS would otherwise retain its longstanding policy of restraint as it applies to tax accrual workpapers. I think this is a sound proposal that will significantly advance the ball in the transparency area. We understand this proposal will generate a good deal of discussion and debate, and we welcome that. We look forward to public comments and the upcoming dialogue regarding this important announcement. Our mission with respect to our large business audit program, indeed our entire audit program, is to collect the proper amount of tax and to use our compliance tools to foster on-going compliance by all taxpayers, including our largest taxpayers. Our responsibility is the same as the responsibility of our taxpayers - apply the law as it currently exists, not how we would like it to be, and do so with neither a thumb on the scale in favor of the government, nor in favor of the taxpayer. Our ultimate goal with respect to our large case audit program is to bring taxpayers into compliance and keep them there with strategies that are less time and resource intensive than our traditional audit process. Our work on corporate governance is part of this strategy as is the transparency proposal I outlined today. In fact, we have moved down this path with the Compliance Assurance Program or "CAP." This program allows taxpayers that are transparent with us with respect to their tax issues to get certainty with respect to their tax obligations at the time their return is filed. Indeed, with regard to several of our CAP taxpayers that have been in the program for a number of years, we will be moving them to what we refer to as a monitoring program, where we address and resolve issues with a taxpayer as they arise. We are looking to expand and make permanent the CAP program in the near future. While we understand that there will always be a need for our traditional audit process, we will continue to try to work smarter. We will use new techniques, and count on enhanced transparency, to help us maximize the use of our resources and spend our time on the issues and taxpayers who pose the greatest compliance risk. In the future, the IRS will depend more and more on information and new alternatives to the traditional audit process to ensure compliance with the tax laws. In conclusion, I want to thank you again for inviting me today to share some ideas and plans with you that I believe can benefit both the corporate community and the IRS, and maintain the integrity of our tax system. Of course, the challenges I described today were not created in a day-and-a-night and cannot be solved in a day-and-a-night. I am a big believer that institutions like the IRS need to constantly evolve to keep up with an ever changing business environment. As the world has become more complex, we will continue to try to work smarter. And as we try new techniques and evolve our programs, we will look forward to hearing your feedback and having an ongoing dialogue. Thanks for your time today, and I'd be happy to answer a few questions. ### About Mike Habib, EA Mike Habib is an IRS licensed Enrolled Agent who concentrates his tax practice on helping individuals and businesses solve their IRS & State tax problems. Mike has over 16 years experience in taxation and financial advisory to individuals, small businesses and fortune 500 companies. Tax problems do not go away unless you take some action! Get Tax Relief today by calling me at 1-877-78-TAXES You can reach me from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, 7 days a week. Also online at http://www.MyIRSTaxRelief.com

President Announces Middle-Class Tax Relief and Retirement Incentives

President Obama plans to propose a near doubling of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for middle-income families earning under $85,000, establishment of a system of automatic 401(k) enrollments and simplifying and expanding the Saver's Tax Credit. These initiatives will be included in the president's fiscal year 2010 budget and are among several recommendations made by the Middle Class Task Force chaired by Vice President Biden and announced by Obama and Biden on January 25.

The administration proposes to increase the tax credit rate for child and dependent care expenses from 20 percent to 25 percent for families making under $85,000 a year. The credit is phased down to 20 percent for families earning between $85,000 and $115,000, noted a senior administration official. Families could claim up to $3,000 in expenses for one child and $6,000 for two children. The maximum credit for a household with two children earning below $80,000 annually would increase from $1,200 to $2,100 under the proposal.

Under the automatic IRA proposal, employers who do not offer a retirement plan are required to automatically enroll employees in a direct-deposit IRA unless they opt out. According to a White House release, the voluntary contributions will be matched by a Saver's Tax Credit for eligible families. The proposal indicates that the saver's credit would match 50 percent of the first $1,000 of contributions by families earning up to $65,000 and offer a partial credit to families making up to $85,000. The administration also will propose to make the Saver's Tax Credit refundable.

The White House billed the middle-class tax relief and retirement savings incentives as one of the key themes in the president's State of the Union address on January 27. In addition, a senior administration official noted that the upcoming address will emphasize job creation efforts and measures to reduce the short- and long-term federal deficit.

The administration will offer greater details about the proposals when the president's budget is released on February 1. The Middle Class Task Force will release its end-of-year report in February.

###

About Mike Habib, EA

Mike Habib is an IRS licensed Enrolled Agent who concentrates his tax practice on helping individuals and businesses solve their IRS & State tax problems. Mike has over 16 years experience in taxation and financial advisory to individuals, small businesses and fortune 500 companies.

Tax problems do not go away unless you take some action! Get Tax Relief today by calling me at 1-877-78-TAXES You can reach me from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, 7 days a week.

Also online at http://www.MyIRSTaxRelief.com

IRS Announces Qualified Disaster Treatment for Haiti

The Internal Revenue Service today issued guidance that designates the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 as a qualified disaster for federal tax purposes. The guidance allows recipients of qualified disaster relief payments to exclude those payments from income on their tax returns. Also, the guidance allows employer-sponsored private foundations to assist victims in areas affected by the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti without affecting their tax-exempt status.

Charities usually fall into one of two categories -- public charities or private foundations. Under the tax law, a private foundation that is employer-sponsored may make qualified disaster relief payments to employees affected by a qualified disaster. These payments generally include amounts to cover necessary personal, family, living or funeral expenses that were not covered by insurance. They also include expenses to repair or rehabilitate personal residences or repair or replace the contents to the extent that they were not covered by insurance. Again, these payments would not be included in the individual recipient's gross income.

Qualified disasters include Presidentially declared disasters and any other event that the Secretary of the Treasury determines to be catastrophic. The IRS has determined that the earthquake in Haiti that occurred this month is an event of catastrophic nature for purposes of the federal tax law.

The IRS will presume that qualified disaster relief payments made by a private foundation to employees and their family members in areas affected by the earthquake in Haiti to be consistent with the foundation's charitable purposes.

###

About Mike Habib, EA

Mike Habib is an IRS licensed Enrolled Agent who concentrates his tax practice on helping individuals and businesses solve their IRS & State tax problems. Mike has over 16 years experience in taxation and financial advisory to individuals, small businesses and fortune 500 companies.

Tax problems do not go away unless you take some action! Get Tax Relief today by calling me at 1-877-78-TAXES You can reach me from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, 7 days a week.

Also online at http://www.MyIRSTaxRelief.com

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At Mike Habib, EA, a SoCal tax firm, we understand that being notified that your tax return is being challenged by the IRS or the FTB can be scary. When you are faced with an audit, or a collection action, by the IRS, or the FTB, you may not know where to turn or what to do. We have the skill set and representation expertise to deal with the IRS and the FTB on your behalf. We understand their rules and are experienced in negotiating the lowest possible tax debt settlement allowed by law.

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• Stop bank account levies


• Tax Resolution Services

If you've received a notice from the IRS, FTB, BOE or EDD, or if you have any unpaid taxes or unpaid back taxes contact our office immediately at 1-877-788-2937 so we can jump start your case as soon as possible. Ignoring tax problems won't help, don't compromise on your representation.

IRS Tax Help, IRS Tax Audit / Examination, Tax Problems & Tax Relief LOS ANGELES COUNTY:

Acton - Agoura Hills - Alhambra - Altadena - Arcadia - Artesia - Avalon - Azusa - Baldwin Park - Bell - Bellflower - Beverly Hills - Burbank - Calabasas - Canoga Park - Canyon Country - Carson - Castaic - Cerritos - Chatsworth - City of Industry -Claremont - Compton - Covina - Culver City - Diamond Bar - Downey - Duarte - El Monte - South, - El Segundo - Encino - Gardena - Glendale - Granada Hills - Hacienda Heights - Harbor City - Hawaiian Gardens - Hawthorne - Hermosa Beach - Huntington Park - Inglewood - LA Los Angeles - La Canada Flintridge - La Crescenta - La Habra Heights - La Mirada - La Puente - La Verne - Lawndale - Long Beach - Lynwood - Malibu - Manhattan Beach - Marina del Rey - Maywood - Mission Hills - Monrovia - Montebello - Monterey Park - Montrose - Newhall - North Hills - North Hollywood - Northridge - Norwalk - Pacific Palisades - Pacoima - Palmdale - Palos Verdes - Panorama City - Paramount - Pasadena - Pearblossom - Pico Rivera - Playa del Rey - Playa Vista - Pomona - Rancho P.V. - Redondo Beach - Reseda - Rosemead - Rowland Heights - San Dimas - San Fernando - San Gabriel - San Marino - San Pedro - Santa Clarita - Santa Fe Springs - Santa Monica - Sherman Oaks - Sierra Madre - Signal Hill - South Gate - South Pasadena - Stevenson Ranch - Studio City - Sun Valley - Sunland - Sylmar - Tarzana - Temple City - Topanga - Torrance - Valencia - Valley Village - Van Nuys - Venice - Walnut - West Covina - West Hills - West Hollywood/LA Los Angeles - Westlake Village - Whittier - Wilmington - Winnetka - Woodland Hills .

IRS Tax Help, IRS Tax Audit / Examination, Tax Problems & Tax Relief ORANGE COUNTY:

Aliso Viejo - Anaheim - Anaheim Hills - Balboa Island - Brea - Buena Park - Capistrano Beach - Corona del Mar - Costa Mesa - Cypress - Dana Point - Foothill Ranch - Fountain Valley - Fullerton - Garden Grove - Huntington Beach - Irvine - La Habra - La Palma - Ladera Ranch - Laguna Beach - Laguna Hills - Laguna Niguel - Laguna Woods - Lake Forest - Los Alamitos - Midway City - Mission Viejo - Newport Beach - Newport Coast - Orange - Placentia - Rancho St. Margarita - San Clemente - San Juan Capistrano - Santa Ana - Seal Beach - Silverado - Stanton - Sunset Beach - Surfside - Trabuco Canyon - Tustin - Villa Park - Westminster - Yorba Linda .

IRS Tax Help, IRS Tax Audit / Examination, Tax Problems & Tax Relief RIVERSIDE COUNTY :

Aguanga - Anza - Banning - Beaumont - Blythe - Cabazon - Calimesa - Canyon Lake - Cathedral City - Coachella - Corona - Desert Center - Desert Hot Springs - Hemet - Homeland - Idyllwild, Indian Wells - Indio - La Quinta - Lake Elsinore - Mecca - Menifee - Mira Loma - Moreno Valley, Mountain Center - Murrieta - Norco - North Palm Springs - Nuevo, Palm Desert - Palm Springs, Perris - Rancho Mirage - Riverside - San Jacinto - Sun City - Temecula - Thermal - Thousand Palms - White Water - Wildomar - Winchester .

IRS Tax Help, IRS Tax Audit / Examination, Tax Problems & Tax Relief SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY :

Adelanto - Angeles Oaks - Apple Valley - Barstow - Big Bear City - Big Bear Lake - Bloomington, Blue Jay - Cedar Glen - Cedarpines Park - Chino - Chino Hills - Colton - Crest Park - Crestline, Daggett - Fawnskin - Fontana - Forest Falls - Grand Terrace - Green Valley Lake - Helendale - Hesperia - Highlands - Hinkley - Joshua Tree - Lake Arrowhead - Landers - Loma Linda - Lucerne Valley - Lytle Creek - Mentone - Montclair - Morongo Valley - Needles - Newberry Springs - Ontario - Oro Grande - Phelan - Pinon Hills - Pioneertown - Rancho Cucamonga - Redlands - Redlands - Rialto - Rim Forest - Running Springs - San Bernardino - Sky Forest - Sugarloaf - Trona - Twentynine Palms - Twin Peaks - Upland, Victorville - Wrightwood - Yermo - Yucaipa - Yucca Valley .

IRS Tax Help, IRS Tax Audit / Examination, Tax Problems & Tax Relief SAN DIEGO COUNTY :

Alpine - Bay Park - Bonita - Bonsall - Borrego Springs - Boulevard - Campo - Carlsbad - Chula Vista - Clairemont - College Grove - Coronado - Del Mar - Descanso - Downtown - Dulzura, East San Diego - El Cajon - Encanto - Encinitas - Escondido - Fallbrook - Grantville - Hillcrest, Imperial Beach - Jacumba - Jamul - Julian - La Jolla - La Mesa - Lakeside - Lemon Grove - Linda Vista - Logan Heights - Mission Village - National City - Normal Heights - North City West, North Park - Ocean Beach - Oceanside - Pacific Beach - Palomar Mtn - Paradise Hills - Pauma Valley - Pine Valley - Point Loma - Potrero - Poway - Ramona - Ranchita - Rancho Bernardo - Rancho Penasquitos - Rancho Santa Fe - San Carlos - San Diego - San Marcos - San Ysidro - Santa Ysabel - Santee - Scripps Ranch - Solana Beach - South San Diego - Spring Valley - Spring Valley - Tierrasanta - University City - Valley Center, Vista - Warner Springs .

IRS Tax Help, IRS Tax Audit / Examination, Tax Problems & Tax Relief VENTURA COUNTY :

Bell Canyon - Camarillo - Fillmore - Moorpark - Newbury Park - Oak Park - Oak View - Ojai Oxnard - Piru - Port Hueneme - Santa Paula - Simi Valley - Somis - Thousand Oaks - Ventura Westlake Village .

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National Taxpayer Advocate Annual Report

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her annual report to Congress, warning that increased demands on the IRS have eroded the agency's ability to meet taxpayer service needs and expressing concern that IRS collection practices are harming financially struggling taxpayers without producing significant revenue gains.

In the preface to the report, Olson noted that she is required by statute to identify taxpayer problems, but she wrote that "the IRS in many respects has had an extremely successful year." She cited, in particular, the IRS's success in implementing significant legislative changes designed to stimulate the economy in the midst of the filing season.
Among the key issues and themes identified in this year's report:

Telephone Service. The report designates the IRS's declining ability to answer telephone calls as the most serious problem facing taxpayers. Olson notes that the IRS has set a target for FY 2010 of answering only 71 percent of calls from taxpayers seeking to speak with a customer service representative about account questions, down from 83 percent in FY 2007.

"In other words, the IRS is planning to be unable to answer about three of every 10 calls it receives," Olson said, adding that the IRS expects those who get through will have to wait an average of 12 minutes. The report states that this projected level of service is barely above the level of 69 percent notched in 1998, when Congress passed the landmark IRS Restructuring and Reform Act due in large part to concerns about inadequate taxpayer service. "This level of service is unacceptable," Olson wrote.

Examination and Collection Issues. The report contains a detailed assessment of IRS examination and collection practices, concluding that many practices have been developed piecemeal and that the IRS lacks an effective overarching strategy to maximize voluntary compliance. The report also concludes that IRS collection practices often harm taxpayers without producing revenue.

In particular, the report cites IRS lien filing policies as the second most serious problem facing taxpayers. The IRS uses automated systems to file liens against taxpayers in a variety of situations, even when the taxpayer possesses minimal or no property and the lien will do little more than damage the taxpayer's financial viability and access to credit. A study conducted by Olson's office found no obvious causal relationship between the number of lien notices filed and the amount of overall revenue collected. Over the past decade, the IRS increased its lien filings by nearly 475 percent - from about 168,000 in FY 1999 to nearly 966,000 in FY 2009, yet overall inflation-adjusted collection revenue declined by 7.4 percent during this period.

A second study found that IRS procedures for determining a taxpayer's ability to pay outstanding tax liabilities may be driving some taxpayers into long-term noncompliance because the IRS fails to consider other debts such as credit card balances, school loans, and actual hospital or medical bills. Other tax systems, including Sweden's, consider the taxpayer's overall financial picture.

"Any taxpayer with these debts will tell you that these creditors don't go away," Olson said. "Taxpayers are placed in the intolerable position of agreeing to pay the IRS more than they can actually afford (given their other debts) and then defaulting on the IRS payment arrangements when they channel payments to unsecured creditors in order to get some peace. Thus, the IRS itself fosters noncompliance by its failure to take a holistic approach to the taxpayer's debt situation."

The National Taxpayer Advocate recommends that Congress require the IRS, before imposing a lien, to make a determination that the benefits of filing the lien outweigh the harm to the taxpayer and will not jeopardize the taxpayer's ability to comply with future tax obligations.

Data Concerns. The report expresses concern that the IRS does not maintain sufficient reliable data to assess the effectiveness of its collection practices in several respects. First, the IRS theoretically tracks the specific source of all payments received on delinquent accounts, but a TAS study found the majority of payments received either were not coded or were coded as coming from "miscellaneous" sources. The absence of this information makes a thorough assessment of the effectiveness of IRS collection practices impossible. Second, the amount of revenue the IRS collects is difficult to parse because the IRS itself uses multiple measures of what it calls "collection yield" or "enforcement revenue."

Third, the report states that the quality of IRS's data reporting is uneven. Olson's office found that the official IRS Data Book for FY 2008 revised collection revenue totals downward by $32 billion, or 27 percent, for FY 2005, FY 2006, and FY 2007 combined, without explanation. "There is an astonishing lack of transparency as to what is included in these revenue figures and how they are computed," Olson said. "The failure to highlight and explain revisions of such magnitude erodes confidence in IRS's data reporting," she added.

Preparer Regulation. The report praises the IRS for moving ahead with plans to regulate federal income tax preparers. Olson called the plan, which the IRS issued earlier this week, a "significant, far-reaching initiative."

However, Olson expressed concern that one aspect of the plan may create a significant gap in the new rules that may be widely and increasingly exploited. Under current law, anyone may prepare a tax return for compensation, with no training, licensing, or oversight required. While attorneys, CPAs, and Enrolled Agents must pass difficult examinations to practice, others (known as "unenrolled preparers") are not required to do so. To protect taxpayers and improve tax compliance, Olson has proposed since 2002 that unenrolled preparers be required to register with the IRS, pass an examination, and complete periodic continuing education courses.

The IRS plan announced this week would impose these requirements on return preparers who sign tax returns but not on preparers who meet with taxpayers and prepare their returns if someone else signs them. To minimize cost and burden, a return preparation business may decide to employ one "signing" preparer who is certified under the new IRS rules and an unlimited number of "nonsigning" preparers. The nonsigning preparers would not have to register, pass an exam, or take continuing education courses, and the signing preparer would be unable to thoroughly review every return he signs (in part because the interview with the taxpayer is central to accurate preparation of the return).

Olson noted that the burden of the new rules themselves may cause more return preparation businesses to employ nonsigning preparers. "We are concerned that excluding nonsigning preparers could create an exception that swallows the rule," the report states. The report notes that not all nonsigning preparers need to be covered to protect taxpayers and recommends that the IRS consider extending the new rules to apply to all unenrolled nonsigning preparers.

Rethinking the "Pay Refunds First, Verify Eligibility Later" Approach to Tax Returns Processing. Under current procedures, the IRS processes income tax returns before it processes most information returns, including Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, and Forms 1099, which report interest, dividends, and other payments. "This sequence makes little logical sense," the report states. From a taxpayer perspective, the sequence leads to millions of cases where taxpayers inadvertently make overclaims that the IRS does not identify until months later, exposing the taxpayer not only to a tax liability but to penalties and interest charges as well. From the government's perspective, this sequence creates opportunities for fraud and requires the IRS to devote resources to recovering refunds that should not have been paid and that it often cannot recover. This sequence also prevents the IRS from making pre-populated returns available as an option to taxpayers.

The report recommends that Congress direct the Treasury Department to prepare a report identifying the administrative and legislative steps required to allow the IRS to receive and process information reporting documents before it processes tax returns. It recommends setting a goal of making these changes within six years.

Running Social Programs through the Tax System. Volume 2 of the report contains an analysis of social benefits provided through the tax code, with an emphasis on refundable credits. Refundable credits have been associated with high overclaim rates. However, the report states that where noncompliance involving refundable credits exists, the refundable nature of the credit is not the primary driver of the noncompliance.

The report notes that some provisions of the tax code not involving refundable credits also are associated with high overclaim rates and concludes that the manner in which a provision is designed is a larger determinant of compliance rates than refundability. In particular, the IRS can more precisely administer tax benefits when the eligibility criteria reflect data that the IRS can verify through automation. The report proposes certain design elements to assist policymakers in enacting programs that maximize both participation and compliance.

The second volume of this year's report also presents in-depth studies on the IRS's use of notices of federal tax liens, the subsequent compliance behavior of delinquent taxpayers, and tax administration aspects of a consumption tax such as a value-added tax as well as an assessment of ombudsman offices across the Federal government.

Assessing tax administration today, Olson concludes that the IRS "is subject to three diverging forces - increased responsibility for non-core tax administration duties, increasing demand for taxpayer service (including telephone assistance) and declining resources to meet that demand, and collection policies that mask a laissez faire attitude toward taxpayer harm under the guise of 'efficiency.'"

"The taxpayer is wedged in the middle of these forces, being pulled in all directions, but never the right one," Olson writes.

Federal law requires the National Taxpayer Advocate to submit an Annual Report to Congress each year identifying at least 20 of the most serious problems encountered by taxpayers and to make administrative and legislative recommendations to mitigate those problems. Overall, this year's report identifies 21 problems, provides updates on two previously identified issues, makes dozens of recommendations for administrative change, proposes 11 recommendations for legislative change, and analyzes the 10 tax issues most frequently litigated in the federal courts during the past fiscal year.

About the Taxpayer Advocate Service
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS whose employees assist taxpayers who are experiencing economic harm, who are seeking help in resolving tax problems that have not been resolved through normal channels or who believe that an IRS system or procedure is not working as it should.

Get IRS tax help and tax relief from back taxes by calling the tax firm of Mike Habib, EA at 1-877-788-2937 or online at myirstaxrelief.com

Tax Relief - Short List

Tax relief is a term that refers to providing tax problem resolution and relief from the fear and burden of the mounting tax liability. Tax relief is provided on a federal and state level.

Want tax relief?

There are several reasons on why you may need tax relief. The main reason is usually you're unable to pay all your back taxes owed with interest and penalties.

Here is what you need to do:

1. You need to team up with a tax relief expert, someone who is licensed to represent you before the IRS and or the State you owe taxes to,


2. The tax relief expert or specialist must specialize in representation and be licensed by the federal government or the State that you reside in,


3. Never hire a vague company that keeps pushing "pennies on the dollar" tax relief, they are usually unlicensed and have terrible BBB, better business bureau ratings, and a lot of complaints for non performance, most of these vague tax relief companies do not list a physical address, they do not include the bios of the leadership behind them, they advertise a lot on TV and the internet, and they just want your name, telephone number, email and your credit card number,


4. DO NOT consult your tax case with a sales representative, they're given an alias name, they're given odd titles like Tax Consultant, etc. Check the bios of these tax relief companies and see who is behind the firm, many of these companies are not tax firms nor are they law firms.

Tax Relief Options

There are currently a few tax relief programs available to you, but you need to comply with the financial and other requirements. First, you must be compliant with all your tax return filings, if you have unfiled returns, they need to get filed right away, secondly you need to understand the scope of your tax liability, and lastly the strategy to get tax relief based on your financial ability or inability to pay the taxes owed.

Various tax settlement options

You have options, and rights to resolve your tax mess and getting tax relief, here are the 2 main tax settlements:

1. Offer in compromise: this is the best option if you do not have any assets, very limited income, and large amount of back taxes. With an offer in compromise, you can settle your tax debt for less than you owe based on your financial condition,


2. Installment agreement: this is a payment plan, also based on your ability to pay, it could be as little as $25 per month and usually it's a partial payment plan, thus paying a partial amount of your taxes, interest and penalties based on your financial ability or inability to pay.

Start here

Get tax relief with the help of Mike Habib, an Enrolled Agent who is an expert in helping businesses and individuals solve their tax problems with the IRS. Let him represent you before the IRS so he can negotiate the best option for your owed back taxes. Contact him by calling 1-877-788-2937 where you can also benefit from a free consultation. Otherwise, you can fill out a form on this website with your contact information and he will get back at you ASAP. Learn more about Mike Habib and his services by exploring this site.

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