Am I Still Required to File A Past State Tax Return?

states with no income tax

Don’t worry about filing a past state tax return if you belong to one of these as your resident state.

The U.S. states that do not have income taxes are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. However, just because you don’t need to pay income tax, doesn’t mean a state is any cheaper to live in. In order to maintain state revenue, states with no income tax rely on other uses of taxes such as estate, property, sales, excise, gift taxes and more.

For example, here are a few ways each state maintains their state revenue:

  • Alaska depends on estate, excise, gift and severance taxes
  • Florida depends on property, sales, and corporate income taxes
  • Nevada; being a tourist attraction, depends on fees, gambling taxes, and high sales taxes
  • South Dakota taxes property, alcoholic beverages and cigarettes
  • Texas depends on high use, sales and property taxes
  • Washington depends on business, occupation and sales taxes
  • Wyoming depends on taxing property and businesses

Unlike the seven states above, New Hampshire and Tennessee do not have personal income taxes but still taxes specific types of income. New Hampshire doesn’t have sales tax, or inheritance tax but it does tax interest and dividends. Tennessee does not have estate and inheritance tax but taxes dividends and interest due to its Hall Tax.

Have you forgotten to file a state return or two?

Continue reading “Am I Still Required to File A Past State Tax Return?”

Can you still get tax free back to school shopping?

Are you a little late on back to school shopping?

There’s some good news for you. States have been cutting you some slack when shopping for items such as computers, notebooks, clothes and even some home goods (for college dorms) for the month of August.

However, it depends on what each state determines which items are tax-free. There also may be a price cap per item to qualify for no sales tax. Let’s take a look at which states still offer tax-free shopping. Continue reading “Can you still get tax free back to school shopping?”

It’s Back-to-School & Time For Your Refund!

back to school

It’s back to school time, so here are some tips for your taxes!

Attention parents:

  1. Get up to $2,000 for the Child Tax Credit if your child is under 17, resided for more than half the year with you, a dependent on your tax return, your relative, a U.S. citizen, national or resident alien. The refundable amount of the credit goes up to $1,400.
  2. If your child is under 13, claim the child and dependent care credit for child care expenses.
  3. Depending on your income, you can claim the Earned Income Credit (EIC).
  4. The Adoption Tax Credit reduces your tax for fees related to court, attorney, travel and meal expenses. You can also claim the Special Needs Credits for all relating child’s special needs expenses.
  5. If you’re paying for your child’s college education, claim the Education Credit for tuition, mandatory supplies and related fees.

Continue reading “It’s Back-to-School & Time For Your Refund!”