The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, as April 15th , Tax Day approaches, let’s delve into some eye-opening statistics about state taxes and migration patterns. According to Self Financial, New Jersey residents bear the weight of the highest lifetime tax burden, averaging just shy of $1 million ($987,117).
Continue reading New Jersey Residents Pay Close to $1 Million in Taxes From Birth to Death
photos courtesy of Ridgewood Schools
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, April 15th is just a hop, skip, and a jump away, so some RHS students in Mrs. Anderson’s Statistics with Finance course learned about filing taxes and completed a 1040 form activity, using either their own W2 or a sample W2 to file their 2023 tax return!
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, with Tax Day coming up on April 15 and 72% of Americans thinking their current tax rate is too high, WalletHub today released its report on the states with the Best & Worst Taxpayer Return on Investment in 2024, as well as expert commentary.
Continue reading WalletHub Study: New Jersey Is 2024’s State with the 9th Worst Taxpayer ROI
9:00 AM, APR 22, 2015 • BY JOHN MCCORMACK
If you tried to contact the IRS with a question about your taxes this year, chances are you didn’t get a response. The IRS estimated that it would only answer 17 million of the 49 million calls received this filing season. Taxpayers lucky enough to have the IRS answer their calls waited an average of 34.4 minutes for assistance–nearly double the wait time last year (18.7 minutes).
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has blamed the IRS’s “abysmal” customer service on congressional budget cuts–funding is down $1.2 billion from its 2010 peak–but a new congressional report points the finger back at the IRS. While congressional funding for the IRS remained flat from 2014 to 2015, the IRS diverted $134 million away from customer service to other activities.
In addition to the $11 billion appropriated by Congress, the IRS takes in more than $400 million in user fees and may allocate that money as it sees fit. In 2014, the IRS allocated $183 million in user fees to its customer service budget, but allocated just $49 million in 2015–a 76 percent cut.
Commissioner Koskinen will appear before the House Ways and Means Committee this morning, one week after the federal tax filing deadline, and he can expect to be asked why the IRS cut its own customer service budget and continues to spend money on other questionable activities.
The report notes that Koskinen reinstated bonuses weeks after his appointment, has allowed IRS employees to spend roughly 500,000 work hours on union activities, and failed to collect delinquent taxes owed by federal employees. The tax agency has also been strained by Obamacare. According to the report, the IRS has spent “over $1.2 billion on the President’s health care law to date, with a planned expenditure this year of an additional $500 million.”
https://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/report-irs-deliberately-cut-its-own-customer-service-budget_927141.html
April 15, 2015 – 4:35 PM
CNSNews.com) – The federal government has set an all-time record for the amount of inflation-adjusted tax revenue brought into the federal Treasury from the beginning of the fiscal year through the April 15 tax-filing deadline.
As of the close of business on April 14, the Treasury had brought in a record $1,477,901,000,000 since fiscal 2015 started on Oct. 1, 2014, according the Daily Treasury Statement released this afternoon.
We won’t know how much additional tax revenue the Treasury hauled in today until it releases its next daily statement tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. But every dollar of it will add to the new record.
https://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/1477901000000tax-day-tax-record
By Thomas Fletcher – – Tuesday, April 14, 2015
With the federal budget debate underway in Washington, both political parties are certainly sparring over different fiscal visions for the country. There is, however, a chance for rare bi-partisan agreement: repealing the federal death tax.
This unpopular tax has long had an adverse impact on small, family business owners who want the next generation to continue the family legacy. Currently, the federal government seizes over 40 percent of an individual’s estate when they die. While the President wants to destroy so many of those legacies and raise taxes, Congress has the chance to go in a different direction.
Federal lawmakers should look to the states for guidance. While twenty-one of them carry an additional death tax on their books, many states have reformed and in some cases eliminated the death tax in recent years. States such as Oklahoma, Ohio, and North Carolina simply abolished their death taxes. Other states like New York have raised their exemption to match current federal law, although the New York exemption is a phase-in and will match the federal level by 2019.
Supporters often claim that the death tax is vital for revenue, but in reality it is a poor way for a state to raise revenue and has led people to leave a given state. According to a study by the Ocean State Research Institute, the death tax was the primary factor in residents leaving Rhode Island. The study found 107,086 or (one in ten) residents left the state between 1991 and 2009. While the state collected $341.3 million in estate tax receipts, it lost over $500 million in other taxes due to people migrating to other states.
Kelly Phillips Erb Contributor
Happy Tax Day! You’ve probably read a ton of lists by now advising you about last minute filing tips and how to reduce your tax bill. That’s all good stuff. But as you finish up the last minute scramble to get yourtaxes filed, here’s a quick list of what not to do:
1. Fib on your taxes and think you’ll pay later.Don’t cheat to get your money faster – or to avoid paying what you owe now. Lying on your return is wrong. It’s also criminal. Even assuming that you don’t get charged criminally for fraud, the IRS does track patterns of tax behaviors: if they notice a pattern of bad filing behavior (filing now to avoid paying, for example), you’ll eventually be flagged. In addition to slowing future refunds, causing delays in processing and potentially increasing your audit risk, you’ll also get socked with a pretty nasty tax bill. You’ll eventually have to pay what you owe plus penalty and interest.
2. Call your tax professional for anything other than an extension.Lean in closely for this one and listen very carefully. Your tax professional may be awesome. Your tax professional may love you as a client. Your tax professional may be thrilled to have your business. But – and this is important – your tax professional doesn’t want to hear from you today. Really. Unless you’re filing for an extension, put the phone down. It isn’t likely that you can bring in your tax information for the first time on Tax Day and expect to file a reasonably correct tax return on time: all you can do at this point in most circumstances is file for extension. And if you’ve found a mistake on your return? You’ll want to amend using good ol’ form 1040X… next week. Not today. It’s been a long, busy season. Cut your tax professional a break.
3. Spend your refund when it’s not in pocket. If your tax return says that Uncle Sam owes you money – and not the other way around – the temptation is to want to spend it. Right now. And why not? It’s good news, right? But don’t rush to the web to plan that dream vacation or plop a deposit down on a brand new car until you actually have cash in pocket. There could be a delay in processing your return or you could be subject to offset. You might have made a calculation error, overstated a deduction or understated your income. Your refund might be held due to concerns about a duplicate Social Security number or an injured spouse claim. Most of the time, IRS gets it right and statistically, refunds were processed fairly quickly this year. ButVisa V +0.37% doesn’t accept “I’m eventually getting a tax refund” for payment. So be smart, plan ahead and don’t spend your refund in advance.
4. Head out for the post office at 4:55pm. If you’re going to have a Murphy’s Law moment, it’s bound to be on Tax Day. According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, deaths from traffic accidents rise 6% on Tax Day. Combine the rush with the extra stress – and in many parts of the country today (including mine), some pretty terrible weather and you’re bound to increase your odds of something bad happening. And even assuming that something terrible doesn’t happen (and I hope that it doesn’t), you don’t want to take a chance on missing that postmark. Check the post office website for post offices with extended hours today – or better yet, leave a few minutes early.
5. Call the IRS. On a routine day, the chances of the IRS actually picking up the phone are about 7 in 10. And if you are one of the lucky taxpayers to get through to IRS, you’re going to have to wait. On Tax Day, those statistics are even more dire. Don’t assume that you can camp out at your phone today and still meet your filing deadline. If you’re worried about timing, you need to file for an extension and figure it out later (but see #7).
6. Forget to sign your return. I know the feeling. You are so glad to be done that you swoop out of the office, tax return in hand on your way to have Tax Day done for good. Don’t be so glad to be done that you forget to sign your return. A tax return is not considered timely filed if you don’t sign it properly – and if you’re married, that means both spouses have to sign. So take a moment to look your return over and make sure that your signature is at the bottom.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2015/04/15/9-things-not-to-do-on-tax-day/
Before 1913, federal income taxes were rare and short-lived. America became the most prosperous nation on earth. The U.S. Government did not try to police the world or play “nanny” to everyone from cradle to grave. People took responsibility for themselves, their families, and their communities. That is how the founders of America thought it should be. And it worked. It can again!
To read more on taxes:
https://www.lp.org/issues/