IRS

Today, the IRS and Department of Treasury issued final regulations that bring us one step closer to expanding coverage options for millions of uninsured Americans who will start enrolling in new health plans on October 1. These final rules finalize the health care law’s requirement that individuals carry a minimum level of insurance. This requirement is central to improving women’s access to the health insurance market by making it financially possible for insurers to provide coverage to all who seek it at a reasonable cost.

Unlike today’s market, the 2014 health insurance market will provide comprehensive coverage to women regardless of pre-existing conditions that includes coverage for essential health benefits including maternity coverage – and women won’t be charged more than men for that coverage. In order to make that market a reality, it is important that people don’t wait to get sick to enroll in coverage. Read more »

Usually YouTube is not the procrastinators' friend, but as we approach the April 17 tax filing deadline, last-minute filers may want to check out the IRS' YouTube videos to assist them in their tax preparation. For last-minute tax tips, information about extensions of time or tax payment options, and tracking your refund, visit the IRS YouTube Channels in English, Spanish and American Sign Language. Read more »

It’s April and springtime, which means that it’s the final countdown to Tax Day on April 17. For those who haven’t yet filed their 2011 taxes, I offer one more item for your consideration prior to the April 17 deadline. And even those families who have already filed their tax returns for the last tax year (and hopefully claimed tax credits for which they were eligible) shouldn’t stop reading here.

April 17 isn’t just the deadline for filing your 2011 tax return without an extension. It’s the deadline for filing past tax returns – specifically, for the nearly one million individuals and families who failed to file a 2008 tax return. Why bother after three years? Well, the IRS estimates that nearly $1 billion in refunds has been just sitting in the vaults, so to speak, and that over half of those who failed to file a 2008 return may be entitled to a refund of over $600. Read more »

If you’re married, you’re probably planning to file your taxes jointly; most couples do. You should know that spouses filing a joint return are generally each liable for all of the tax owed on that return—but the law provides equitable relief when one of the spouses has no control over, or perhaps no knowledge of, how the household’s financial situation is reported. This “innocent spouse” relief is especially important for women: 90 percent of those who request relief from joint liability are women, 65 percent of those who request relief make less than $30,000 a year, and some are survivors of domestic violence.  

Section 6015(f) of the Internal Revenue Code provides that equitable relief is available for innocent spouses, but the determination rests on a “facts and circumstances” test.  

The Department of the Treasury recently proposed updating, clarifying, and expanding IRS guidelines for granting equitable relief. The proposed guidelines are beneficial to low-income women in general and to survivors of domestic violence in particular. Read more »

In an annual reminder to taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service has announced that tax refund checks for more than 99,000 taxpayers can’t be delivered because of mailing address errors. The checks average $1,547 this year.

If you haven’t received the refund you were expecting, check out the “Where’s My Refund?” tool on www.IRS.gov to find out the status of your refund and, in some cases, instructions on how to resolve delivery problems. You can access a telephone version of “Where’s My Refund?” by calling 1-800-829-1954.

To avoid problems with refunds in the future, the IRS recommends that you electronically file your tax return and elect to receive your refund through direct deposit to your bank account.  Read more »