Tag: Tax and Spend - USNN World News

The History of Taxation in the United States: From Inception to Modern-Day Policy

by USNN2020August 2, 2023August 2, 2023

By Stephen Zogopoulos, USNN World News Taxation is an integral aspect of any government’s functioning, providing the necessary financial resources to fund public services, infrastructure, and various programs. In the United States of America, the concept of taxation has a rich and complex history, with roots dating back to colonial times. This article aims to […]

National News

Biden Announces $39 Billion Student Loan Forgiveness for Over 800,000 Borrowers

by USNN2020July 14, 2023August 19, 2023

Opinion

A Comparative Analysis of the United States Economy under Democrat and Republican Governance: A Focus on GDP, National Debt, and Inflation

by USNN2020June 28, 2023June 28, 2023

National News

IRS Hiring More Armed Tax Enforcers in All 50 States

by USNN2020April 28, 2023April 28, 2023

National News

IRS Pays $23 Billion Less in Tax Refunds for 2023 Filing Season, Worrying Americans

by USNN2020April 20, 2023April 20, 2023

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released data on its operations showing that, during the 2022 fiscal year, the agency collected close to $5 trillion in taxes while the share of Americans saying that it’s not at all acceptable to cheat on income taxes dropped to six-year low. According to the agency’s newly released Data Book, for fiscal year 2022 (Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2022) the IRS collected a total of $4.9 trillion in taxes. At the same time, the IRS issued just over 242 million refunds amounting to nearly $642 billion. Individual and estate and trust income taxes accounted for around $2.8 trillion, while business income taxes amounted to around $476 billion. Additionally, the share of people saying that it’s “not at all acceptable” to cheat on income taxes fell significantly from 2021 to 2022, from 88 percent to 84 percent. That’s the lowest reading in six years. At the same time, the data show that the share of people saying that it’s every American’s civic duty to pay taxes remained unchanged at 93 percent between 2021 and 2022, though agreement has trended slightly downward since 2017. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in an introduction to the Data Book that the agency’s commitment to maintaining a “visible, robust tax enforcement presence” is “strong.” In a press release accompanying the data, the IRS reiterated its pledge to target high-income and high-wealth individuals, complex partnerships, and big corporations with its enforcement efforts. “The IRS has no plans to increase the audit rate for households making less than $400,000,” the agency said in a statement. The agency recently received an $80 billion funding boost over 10 years, with part of the funds going to hiring more staff, including in areas of tax enforcement. This has fueled concerns about an increase in tax audit rates among lower and middle income Americans, which the IRS has said repeatedly would not be the case. The IRS recently released its strategic operating plan (pdf), in which it identified certain transactions as being at high risk of noncompliance and vowed to ramp up enforcement in some areas. Enforcement Crackdown The IRS said in the plan that it would increase enforcement regarding digital asset transactions and certain other types of transactions. “The IRS tracks many known, high-risk issues in noncompliance, such as digital asset transactions, listed transactions, and certain international issues. These issues arise in multiple taxpayer segments, and data analysis show a higher potential for noncompliance,” the IRS wrote. “We will prioritize resources to increase enforcement activities, including criminal investigation as appropriate.” The tax agency stated that it will develop an information platform to support digital asset reporting and analytics tools with the aim of bolstering digital asset compliance. Digital assets include convertible virtual currency, cryptocurrency, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital representations of value, according to the IRS. Digital assets are considered property by the IRS, which requires taxpayers to report taxable gains or losses from transactions involving such assets. ‘Soft Notice’ Instead of Tax Audits Although the IRS vowed to ramp up enforcement of certain transactions and said it’s planning to get tough on wealthier tax dodgers, it stated that it would soften its enforcement efforts for ordinary filers. The agency stated that it’s rolling out a new program of “tailored post-filing treatments” to resolve issues and omissions on tax returns to provide an opportunity to remedy them before proceeding to a tax audit. The IRS will use “advanced analytics” to distinguish taxpayers who make good-faith mistakes on their tax returns from those trying to avoid paying what they owe. The program would then notify the honest-but-errant taxpayers in a way that gives them an opportunity to self-correct. “We will address issues identified after filing that require IRS intervention promptly and in ways tailored to the specific circumstances of the taxpayer, such as a soft notice to encourage self-correction instead of an audit,” the agency stated. “Notification could start with a soft notice, for example, and move to an audit if no action is taken or the issue remains unresolved.” The IRS stated that resorting to “less-intrusive treatments” would give taxpayers who want to be compliant a quick and easy way to correct issues that have emerged after they’ve filed their tax returns while helping to prevent “unnecessary audits.” The IRS stated that it hopes, as a result of the new initiative, to see a higher incidence of taxpayers correcting or self-correcting issues and a reduction in repeat noncompliance. The agency also expects the initiative to boost the incidence of taxpayers paying what they owe. $1.5 Billion in Unclaimed Refunds In recent tax season developments, the IRS said last week that over a million Americans have unclaimed tax refunds for the tax year 2019 and face a looming deadline to claim a total of $1.5 billion before it becomes government property. The agency said in a press release that nearly 1.5 million people across the United States have unclaimed refunds because they haven’t filed their tax returns for the 2019 tax year. Normally, the deadline for filing older tax returns falls around the April tax deadline. But for 2019 returns, that window has been extended to July 17 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s a three-year window for taxpayers to file returns and claim refunds. If they don’t file within three years, any money they could have received becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury. The average unclaimed amount for the 2019 tax year is $893 per filer. Some Taxpayers Can Get Bigger Refunds Taxpayers who reported certain state payments related to general welfare and disaster relief as taxable income on their tax returns in many cases did so unnecessarily, the IRS said in a recent press release. Earlier this year, the IRS determined that taxpayers in nearly two dozen states didn’t need to report these special payments in tax year 2022. Taxpayers in the following states don’t need to report any state payments related to general welfare and disaster relief: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Alaska is also in this group, although the payments covered by the IRS notice apply only to special supplemental Energy Relief Payments. In addition, four states are special cases in terms of relief payment taxability because they issued such payments in the form of refunds of state taxes paid: Georgia, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Virginia. “For these individuals, state payments will not be included for federal tax purposes if the payment is a refund of state taxes paid and the recipient either claimed the standard deduction for tax year 2022 or itemized their tax year 2022 deductions but did not receive a tax benefit,” the IRS said. Taxpayers who meet the above criteria and needlessly paid tax on special state payments can file an amended return either electronically or in paper form. Electronic filers can opt for a direct deposit, while paper filers can expect a paper check for any resulting refunds.

National News

IRS Raked in Nearly $5 Trillion in Taxes From Americans Last Year

by USNN2020April 17, 2023April 17, 2023

National News

Six Major Changes Made by IRS for 2023 Tax Season

by USNN2020March 12, 2023March 12, 2023

National News

House Passes Bill to Compel Biden Admin to Publish Inflationary Estimates of Executive Actions

by USNN2020March 2, 2023September 7, 2023

Business

Warren Buffett Preaches Confidence in America, Warns ‘Deficits Have Consequences’

by USNN2020February 26, 2023February 26, 2023

National News

California Exodus Continues: 700,000 More Left Than Moved in Over 2 Years, US Census Shows

by USNN2020February 18, 2023February 18, 2023

National News

American Taxpayers Will ‘Fund Lucrative Tax Credits’ Worth $136 Billion For Biden’s Electric Car Agenda

by USNN2020February 9, 2023April 25, 2023

National News

Pay per Mile: States Move Toward User-Based Road Tax

by USNN2020January 17, 2023January 17, 2023

Vivek Ramaswamy Reveals ‘Declaration of Independence From China’
By Nathan Worcester At an industrial facility in his home state of Ohio, GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy outlined his “declaration of independence from China.” “There’s ...
Former Trump Campaign Attorney Says Fulton County Case Based on Illegal Evidence
By Catherine Yang Kenneth Chesebro, who served as an attorney for the Trump Campaign during the then-president’s challenge of the 2020 elections, is arguing that ...
Judge Hands Federal Government Major Legal Defeat in Gulf of Mexico
By Jack Phillips A federal judge struck down a Biden administration rule that would place significant restrictions on an offshore oil and gas lease sale, ...
Trump Says If Reelected He Will Send Troops to Southern Border
By Kos Temenes Former U.S. President Donald Trump said that if reelected, he would shift resources from federal law enforcement agencies and send thousands of ...
Defense Bill Doesn’t Pass Procedural Vote in House For a Second Time
By Lawrence Wilson House Republicans failed for a second time to pass a procedural vote that would allow consideration of the $826 billion defense appropriations ...
Judge Denies Request, Orders Hunter Biden to Appear in Court
By Catherine Yang A judge ruled that Hunter Biden will need to be arraigned in person, denying his request this week to attend his hearing ...
Republicans Embrace Ballot Harvesting for 2024, Some Foresee Legal Battles
By Patricia Tolson After years of condemning ballot harvesting and early voting, Republicans are switching course for 2024 and embracing both policies wholeheartedly. The results, ...
Kari Lake Seriously Considering US Senate Bid
By Caden Pearson Kari Lake said Wednesday that she is seriously weighing the possibility of a Senate bid in 2024, but has refrained from making ...
Garland Says He Doesn’t Remember If He Discussed Hunter Biden Case With FBI
By Joseph Lord Attorney General Merrick Garland says he doesn’t remember if he discussed Hunter Biden’s case with the FBI. During his Sept. 20 testimony to ...
Eric Clapton Helps RFK Jr. Raise $2.2 Million at Los Angeles Fundraiser
By Caden Pearson Eric Clapton helped raise $2.2 million for the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a political action committee ...
Ray Epps Charged With Federal Disorderly Conduct Misdemeanor for Jan. 6 Actions
By Joseph M. Hanneman Federal prosecutors on Sept. 18 charged James Ray Epps Sr., who was shown on video encouraging protesters to enter the Capitol ...
Trump Adopts Sidney Powell’s Effort to Dismiss Georgia Charge
By Jack Phillips Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers made a court filing Monday echoing an argument made by 2020 election lawyer Sidney Powell in a ...

...

MSM Slowly Comes to Grips With Ukraine’s Diminishing Support in Europe, in the US and Worldwide

Slowly but surely, the Mainstream Media is coming to terms with the fact that the support for the Ukrainian regime has diminished considerably in many countries – including the US. [...]

OF COURSE: Pentagon Exempts Ukraine Funding From Possible Government Shutdown

Lots of people in Washington are talking about the possible government shutdown that’s looming. The post OF COURSE: Pentagon Exempts Ukraine Funding From Possible Government Shutdown appeared first on The [...]

OH GREAT: Three Confirmed Cases of Tuberculosis Reported Among Illegal Immigrants in El Paso Sector

Griff Jenkins of FOX News tweeted today that there are now three confirmed cases of Tuberculosis among the illegal immigrants in the El Paso sector. The post OH GREAT: Three [...]

Jack Smith Adds Radical Left-Wing Democrat Donor to Special Counsel Team Persecuting Trump

Jack Smith added Alex Whiting, a ‘war crimes prosecutor’ to his special counsel team of nearly two dozen rabid prosecutors gunning for Trump. The post Jack Smith Adds Radical Left-Wing [...]

REPORT: Ivanka Trump Made Secret Trip to Maui to Help Distribute Food to Fire Victims

No one has heard much from Ivanka Trump lately but she has apparently been busy. The post REPORT: Ivanka Trump Made Secret Trip to Maui to Help Distribute Food to [...]

Affiliate News Feeds