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Capital Gains Tax 2014

Capital Gains Tax 2014 remains almost the same as last year’s tax.

The fiscal cliff deal, officially known as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 increased Capital Gains Taxes in 2013.  The 2014 Capital Gains Tax rates remain almost the same from last year.

For those new to issues of taxation, the IRS defines a capital gain this way:

Almost everything you own and use for personal or investment purposes is a capital asset. Examples include a home, personal use items like household furnishings, and stocks or bonds held as investments. When a capital asset is sold, the difference between the basis in the asset and the amount it is sold for is a capital gain or capital loss.

There are two different types of capital gains:

  • short-term capital gains
  • long-term capital gains

2014 Tax Return Coupon

 

A short-term capital gain results from selling an asset held for one year or less. A long-term capital gain results from selling an asset held for longer than one year.

This distinction is important because each are taxed differently. Continue reading “Capital Gains Tax 2014”

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File a Tax Extension Online with Form 4868

Filing a tax extension gives you an extra six months to file your return, but not to pay your tax bill

The April 15th tax deadline is still over a month away, but for many taxpayers this won’t be long enough to get their financial ducks in a row. Thankfully, the IRS allows you to file an extension and buy yourself a little extra time.

An extension gives you an extra six months to file. Instead of being due on April 15, 2013 your tax return will then be due on October 15, 2013. E-file stays open until the October deadline so you can prepare and file your return just as you would during the season.

In order to request a tax extension you must file Form 4868 [Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return] by the normal tax deadline, April 15th.

An extension does not, however, give you an extra six months to pay the tax man. On Form 4868 you must estimate your tax liability and pay any balance due. If this amount is different from what you get after actually filing your taxes later in the year, you will either receive the difference in the form of a refund or have to send an extra check to the IRS. Continue reading “File a Tax Extension Online with Form 4868”

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Where’s My State Refund?

How to check the status of your state tax return

There aren’t many things in life that can make you miss the IRS but dealing with your state tax authority is definitely one of them. As byzantine as the federal tax code is, the IRS actually does a pretty good job of providing useful information on its website.

The same cannot be said of the forty-one tax authorities (nine lucky states have no income tax) responsible for administering their state’s income tax.

Trying to get any information out of a state tax website can be a frustrating experience. Most look like relics from the 1990s and they definitely did not have user-friendliness in mind when they were designed.

And yet you still need to know where the heck your state tax refund is. To make your life a little easier we’ve compiled a list of where to check your state tax refund for every state that has an income tax. Click on the link and it should take your right to the necessary page of your state’s tax website. Continue reading “Where’s My State Refund?”