1099 Tax Forms May Arrive Later For Many Investors

Per an IRS News Release

IR-2009-11, Jan. 30, 2009

Many investors will receive their year-end tax statements later than in past years, but these forms are likely to be more accurate, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

A new law, enacted last fall, changed the deadline from Jan. 31 to Feb. 15, when brokers, including brokerage firms, mutual fund companies and barter exchanges, must furnish year-end Form 1099-B to their customers, Where a broker furnishes these forms by mail, this means that the forms must be mailed, not received by that date.

Delayed Tax Refunds

Our tax software, ATX, reports that refunds may be delayed for those claiming the recovery rebate credit.

The IRS has announced that if the amount claimed does not match the amount that the IRS has on file, the return will go to the IRS error resolution system. The refund may be delayed by one deposit cycle (one week). For example, a deposit that the taxpayer is expecting on Friday, January 30, may not be made until Friday, February 6. 

Tax Tip - Donation Valuation Guide

A frequent request from clients is how to value items they've donated throughout the year.  The Salvation Army provides a good link - click here to go to the Salvation Army's Valuation Guide .

Note: IRS does not send unsolicited emails

Per IRS Tax Tips:

Be aware of e-mail scams that fraudulently use the IRS name or Logo as a lure. The goal of the scam is to trick people into revealing personal and financial information, such as Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers, which the scammers can use to commit identity theft and steal your money.

The IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails about a person’s tax account or ask for detailed personal and financial information. Additionally, the IRS never asks people for the PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts.

If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the IRS or directing you to an IRS site,

• Do not reply.
• Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
• Do not click on any links. If you clicked on links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing Web site and entered confidential information, visit our Identity Theft page on IRS.gov.

You can help shut down these schemes and prevent others from beingvictimized. If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the IRS, you can forward that e-mail to a special IRS mailbox, phishing@irs.gov The e-mail must be forwarded using special instructions at IRS.gov, or it loses the encoding needed to track it to its source. The IRS can use the information, URLs and links in the suspicious e-mails you forward to trace the hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent sites. After you forward the e-mail to us, delete the message.

FREE Online Personal Finance Software

I've been looking around for the past few months for a inexpensive online personal finance software to replace my desktop version of Quicken.  I found two FREE offers - Mint.com and Quicken Online . For me Mint.com is the best for my situation.  Mint.com immediately pulls in your balances, purchases, stock trades, etc. to give you a complete picture of your finances. Mint.com connects securely with more than 7,000 US financial institutions, saving you hours of tedious data entry.  Quicken Online also does the same thing.  Here are the major differences that I have seen: 

• In Mint.com I can code a transaction to more than one category (split a transaction).  At this time Quicken Online does support splitting a transaction.  When I make a purchase at a grocery store, I generally buy more than just groceries.  There are usually 2 or more categories involved on a shopping trip.  I need to be able to split the transaction into multiple categories or it will completely throw off our family budget.
  
• In Quicken Online, you can enter upcoming transactions which allows you to track a current balance rather than waiting for items to clear accounts.  Mint.com doesn't currently offer entering upcoming transactions.  I keep a separate check register so I always know my checking account balance so this isn't as critical for me.

So, if you are looking to set up a budget to track your spending habits, here are two FREE options.

Colorado not mailing 2009 estimated payment booklet

For taxpayers who make estimated tax payments, the Colorado Department of Revenue announced that it will not mail 2009 individual estimated income tax payment forms. Instead, taxpayers may download the 2009 104EP forms from the Taxation Estimated Payments Web page. Another option is online estimated payments by credit card or echeck at www.Colorado.gov/paytax.  The state will save more than $50,000 by eliminating the printing and mailing costs associated with these estimated income tax payment forms.