Employers that pay wages and other forms of compensation to their employees must comply with federal tax return filing and payment/deposit requirement. Employers that receive services from non-employee contractors and make payments to these contractors must also separately report these payments.
- Federal Employment Tax - Form 941
a. Employers are required to collect federal employee income withholding taxes and the employee's share of Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes (FICA), from wages paid to employees, match the employee's share of FICA, and deposit these ...
The IRS investigates criminal violations of federal tax laws, including tax evasion, tax fraud, and not filing tax returns. Many people do not realize that simply not filing a tax return when it is due is a crime under federal law.
The IRS analyzes criminal violations of federal tax laws through its "Criminal Investigation Division," or "CID." CID agents are referred to as "Special Agents."
The CID examines individuals and businesses for potential criminal tax violations. CID receives information about possible criminal tax violations from a broad range of sources, including ...
The United States has a voluntary tax reporting system. Once a tax return is filed, however, the IRS will seek to verify that filed tax returns comply with the tax laws. To achieve this, an IRS audit ("examination") must take place. There are different types of IRS audits.
The most common type of IRS audit is a "correspondence audit" conducted entirely through the mail. Most correspondence audits are initiated by the IRS computer system, which receives income information for individuals reported to the IRS by third parties (e.g., Form W-2 wages/salaries from employers; Form 1099 ...
If an individual or business owes but has not paid federal taxes, the IRS will make efforts to collect these taxes. The IRS will first send a series of notices requesting payment, but if the taxpayer does not respond to the IRS and make arrangements to pay the taxes, the IRS will then begin "enforced collection measures." The most common measures used by the IRS to collect taxes are (1) the "levy" (or garnishment), where the IRS notifies an employer to take taxes out of an employee or a worker's paycheck and send this money to the IRS; and (2) the bank account levy or seizure where the IRS simply ...
Married couples may file a joint federal income tax return together, reporting their joint income and expenses. The benefit of a joint return is that the overall tax rate may often be lower. However, if a joint return is filed, each of the spouses is fully and individually liable for all taxes that are required to be paid.
Married couples may also elect, instead, to separately file their own returns. The downside is the tax rate for each separately-filing spouse may be higher, but each spouse is only liable for his or her own taxes - and not the taxes of the other spouse.
If a joint tax return is ...
There are 12.9 million acres of commercial forestland in South Carolina. More than half of the forestland is family-owned, and 82% of private owners live on the land. The state also has about 25,000 farms, which encompass 4.9 million acres. Many landowners would like to maintain their property as farmland or forestland but are tempted to capitalize on appreciating land values as development moves towards their property. Conservation easements can help owners monetize development rights while preserving property as farmland or forestland. A conservation easement is a voluntary ...
Businesses that have employees and pay wages and salaries must withhold federal employee income taxes and the employee's share of federal employment taxes (FICA) from these wages and salaries. The employer must "match" the employee's FICA share, and these three components then become the employer's "federal tax deposit," which the employer must electronically pay to the IRS periodically. The frequency of when federal tax deposits must be made by an employer varies (weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, etc.) depending on the amount of these federal "payroll" taxes that are due.
The ...
Where an individual or business owes IRS taxes, Congress has given the IRS a tax lien against all the assets of the taxpayer. The lien covers real estate, homes, furniture, cars, investments, and nearly everything an individual may own. The IRS tax lien also covers all the assets of a business that owes taxes.
The IRS will also record a notice of this tax lien against a taxpayer, typically in the county where deeds are maintained. Once the notice of the tax lien is recorded, most counties publish the lien recording electronically and this information then "goes out to the world." The ...
Where individuals and businesses owe IRS taxes, the IRS has a settlement program where it can legally accept less than what is owed. Known as an "Offer in Compromise," Congress has given the IRS the authority to "compromise" and reduce a tax debt owed to it, but only under very specific terms. The IRS does not have other programs or alternatives where it can accept less tax than what is owed - only the Offer in Compromise.
The IRS Offer in Compromise program has been in effect for many years, but the program has changed. Many individuals and businesses file their own Offers in Compromise with ...
A recent Tax Court decision suggests that employers may want to review their 401(k) plan loan programs and payroll practices. In Louelia Salomon Frias and Mervyngil Salomon v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2017-139 (July 11, 2017), the Tax Court held that an employee on maternity leave: (1) defaulted on her 401(k) plan loan; (2) failed to cure the default within the applicable cure period; and (3) as a result, there was a "deemed distribution" of the outstanding balance of the loan plus accrued interest which was taxable to the employee.
As described below, the loan default language in the ...