The IRS is cracking down on more tax cheats this year but they don't enforce this standard on thousands of their own employees.

While 96% of IRS employees fulfilled their tax obligations last year, a significant share were delinquent, owing almost $50 million in federal taxes, a new oversight report found. This certainly raises questions when we are constantly hearing about the IRS efforts to enforce tax compliance and restore "fairness" in the nation’s tax system by starting with non-compliant taxpayers.

One of the subjects that politicians and the main street media love to push is that the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes.  But is that really true?  I thought I would give you some real statistics and let you decide.  Here is the latest data available from the IRS for 2021, in which the tax burden on high-incomers rose:

The top 1% of individual filers paid 45.78% of all U.S. federal income taxes, although they created only 26.3% of the total adjusted income.  These are people that had an AGI of more than $682,577.

The highest 5% paid 65.64% of total income tax, while the only created 41.99% of the total adjusted income and had an AGI of more than $252,840 or more.

One of the darlings of the Climate Change crowd is how wind power can save the planet.  The real truth is that it is more harmful than the other forms of energy production.  Here are some the REAL facts about wind farms, especially offshore ones:

It appears that all that money you make with cryptocurrency can't be hidden anymore.  The Internal Revenue Service has issued final regulations that require custodial brokers to report sales and exchanges of digital assets. These reporting requirements are meant to help taxpayers file accurate tax returns with respect to digital asset transactions, which are already subject to tax under current law.

Social Security-related scams are very common, according to a March report from the Federal Trade Commission, which said it’s the number one “government imposter scam in the United States.”   In 2023 alone, consumers reported losing more than $126.5 million in Social Security-related scams.  That's millions!

The U.S. Social Security Administration announced this week that a $600 payment increase scam has been promoted online. Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said, “Reports of a $600 payment increase are FALSE, please be aware and don’t fall for this stunt.”

The general rule is that business travel expense deductions are only available to business owners, but don't count yourself out of those deductions just yet.   Let's explore the ins and outs of the business travel deductions to ensure you make the most of every business trip.

To start out with, the IRS provides details on business travel tax deductions in IRS publication 463, and the the rules allow a variety of travel expenses to be deducted, including:

It's the season for tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding and devastating winds.  So, I thought it would be a good time to review the rules for taking money out of your retirement accounts to get you through the storms. 

The IRS has just released a new set of FAQs on the provisions that the SECURE Act 2.0 provides for relief of individuals impacted by federally declared disasters. The SECURE 2.0 Act allows for:

On March 11, 2024, the new rules that the U.S. Department of Labor created to clarify the classifications between independent contractors and employees went into effect. Many employers and freelance contractors have wanted a better distinction between what constitutes the difference and this document is the final rule on that issue.

Some employers preferred classifying contractors as non-employees because it would save them a lot of money since they would not have to pay them overtime or minimum wages, give employee benefits, withhold taxes, pay for half of their social security/medicare and they would enable them to let them go without any reason.