If you used a 1040EZ form last year and you received another one in the mail this year because it was what you used last year, you should know that you don’t have to use this form again. If your situation has changed, you may not be able to use this form any longer, especially if you have many different deductions that you will need to input. It’s important to remember that form 1040EZ is for those that have a very straight forward tax situation and generally there is not a place for itemized deductions. You can deduct more general things, but if you want to itemize you should use the 1040A form that will allow you more space for the itemized deductions.

You can still use the 1040 EZ if you do not claim any dependents and if you do not claim a deduction for educator expenses, the student loan interest deduction, or the tuition feeds and deductions. You also cannot claim the education credit, retirement savings contributions credit, or the health insurance credit. If you will not be deducting these items you can still use the form, though many find it easier to simply use the 1040 forms because they are meant for more complicated tax situations. If you like the EZ form you can still use it as long as you meet all of the criteria such as not owing any household employment taxes on wages paid to a household employee. You also cannot be a nonresident alien, or have received any advance earned income credit payments. In addition you can only have had wages, salaries, tips and other compensation that does not total $1,500.

Using the 1040EZ form really is very simple and straight forward and that is why so many people really like the form. When filling out the form you should do the first draft in pencil and then trace over it in pen so that you are certain you have filled out everything correctly. As simple as the form is compared to other tax forms, you can still make mistakes and it is a good idea to go slowly and do things in pencil so you can make changes if needed, when you correct your work. If you input all of your deductions and you still owe, be sure to make your check out to the “United States Treasury” to complete your taxes for the year.

Were you filling out your 1040EZ this year wondering if you had some money somewhere that you didn’t know about? The fact is that the IRS says that there is money that may belong to you. For instance, the IRS says that they have 73 million dollars in refunds that could not be delivered just from the 2004 tax year alone! There is a chance that some of this could be yours. It’s not about the form that you used; it’s about the IRS not being able to deliver your funds. This is becoming less common as time goes on as more people are having their refunds deposited directly into their bank accounts. While this is doing away with some of the problem, it hasn’t done away with completely and many of the unclaimed refunds predate the ability to deposit funds into your bank account.

So, don’t just think about whether or not you have unclaimed tax refunds while filling out your form 1040EZ, actually go and look for them. You can visit the www.irs.gov website and see for yourself if you have any unclaimed tax refunds. This will take just a minute after you click on the “Where’s My Refund?’ link on the site. You may just be surprised when you see your name on the list of refunds that haven’t been able to be paid. Who knows, you could have a couple hundred extra dollars in your pocket when all is said and done.

What happens with unpaid tax refunds is that people will fill out their 1040A or other tax forms with one address, and then you may have moved before your refund arrived. When the post office couldn’t deliver the item to you or it was not picked up from somewhere such as a post office box, the check was returned to the IRS and has simply been sitting, waiting to be claimed every year since then. When you visit the website you can verify who you are, input your new address, and have your old tax refund or refunds sent to you, even when it is not tax season! This is a nice surprise that many find out about, and while you are looking you may want to check for U.S. savings bonds that you have not received, or check into mortgage insurance refunds, too! You could walk away with quite a bit of money.

I learned something new today. Or maybe I received financial revelation. Regardless of what happened, I am about to share this combination income tax, portfolio building finding with my faithful radio listeners and article readers. “Do what the hell I tell you” takes on a new meaning and is a force to be reckoned with.

I was asked by a financial planner to review a new client’s income tax return for the previous year. In familiarizing my self with the situation, I found that the client has W-2 income, makes contributions to his 401K, owns a home and is paying mortgage interest, and even makes contributions that are non deductible to a traditional individual retirement account (IRA). This taxpayer is married with one child and is in the dreaded alternative minimum tax. What can be done for this poor man and his family?

At first glance, there appeared to be nothing that could be done. This guy has a W-2 and some pretty standard itemized deductions. He is in what I refer to as situational AMT. This is to say that he is in the alternative minimum tax due to his normal situation and not by special transactions. I was beginning to feel that this guy was just destined to stay in the AMT until Congress takes action. Starting to think about Roth IRA’s, I considered electing to forgo the 401K salary deferral and contribute to the Roth IRA instead. Remember, a taxpayer is ineligible to contribute to a Roth IRA is his adjusted gross income (AGI) is in excess of $150,000. However, one can contribute to a Roth IRA if it is part of an employer’s 401K, regardless of one’s AGI. This would increase income tax currently but would be beneficial later as earnings and contributions would not be taxable when withdrawn. This could even save tax money by allowing social security benefits to escape income tax. The problem with our guy is that the income sacrifice today is too great (as he would still be in the AMT). This taxpayer is clearly committed to saving by virtue of the fact that he is willing to make non deductible contributions to a traditional IRA.

What this really means is that this family has its entire savings invested in the stock market. Conventional wisdom tells us that here should be some investment that is not correlated with the stock market and its movements. Here’s where real estate comes into play. Real estate will provide for savings through investment and will provide for diversity away from the stock market. The money that was being contributed to the non deductible IRA can be used to finance the debt service on the real estate. The mortgage interest in this case will qualify as a tax deduction (second home qualification) along with the real estate tax paid. Of course, the hope is the real estate will appreciate over time. It is even possible for the family to make this investment a principal residence in the future (see my article regarding the addition of real estate to one’s portfolio). Here’s the icing on the cake. The additional mortgage interest deduction gets this family out of the alternative minimum tax. My additional thoughts are that the traditional IRA’s be converted to Roth’s as long as the new tax law lasts.

In closing, let’s remember that the most important part of adding any investment to a portfolio is its economic value. In this case, we are able to diversify away from the stock market, create a tax deduction that gets this taxpayer out of the AMT, and add something of economic substance to the portfolio. Wow, this has really been a good day in the world of income tax and financial planning. I hope all is right with your financial planning. Always feel free to ask any questions and you are always invited to listen to the most complete business program on radio, “Better Business”, Saturday mornings at 10ET on WBIS AM 1190. “You can do what ever you want, but my way is better. Save yourselves and do what the hell I tell you”!

Every business needs to maintain their financial record as this helps it in the long run. There is a close relation between the financial records of a company and its successful running. If the business is workings then it means that the financial status of the firm is properly managed. Bookkeeping is an important business tool for any size of business to help them record all the financial transaction. Bookkeeping records every single transaction irrespective of the size of the expense and other stuffs related to it. A bookkeeper is an individual also known as accountant clerk who is responsible to keep all the records of an organization. Bookkeeping is one such important task that is essential for all kinds of organizations whether it is a business, charity or a local club. It is an essential part of almost every business or an organization to run it efficiently.

Bookkeeping is a procedure that an organization considers to gather accounting information of its business. Bookkeeping is a tedious task for accounting firms as it takes long hours to maintain the accounts. Bookkeeping rates differ from one firm to another depending on the efficiency of the service provider. If a firm has its own department of bookkeeping then it can prove expensive for the organization. Keeping trained staffs and managing them is very tedious job. The cost of a trained staff is really expensive as their quite efficient to handle the accounting task. The first job of bookkeeping is to accumulate all the data. Then, there are other process which is followed accordingly.

Bookkeeping rates is the tariff that a service provider charges from its client. There are many bookkeeping methods that a business can come across to handle its accounting task. Some of these methods are data entry bookkeeping, single entry bookkeeping, commercial bookkeeping, one-write systems, computerized systems The accounting task consists of listing the payments on a page along with the deposits received from people and others. Double-entry bookkeeping system is the most commonly used method of bookkeeping. A bookkeeper is liable for writing up the daybooks for your company. The daybooks consist of entire records of purchase, sales, receipts and payments. It’s the responsibility of bookkeepers to enter the transaction records correctly in the supplier’s ledger, customer ledger, and daybook. Then, the books are brought for the trial balance phase for a financial account.

Commercial bookkeeping systems are accessed from a stationery outlet. Infact, it is a package system with instructions written and forms as well to use consequently. While, a one-write system is a copyrighted system that is set up by using carbon-backed cheques.It resembles that when an individual writes something on a cheque, the data is also transferred to a record system. In a single entry system, the transaction is recorded only once, either as income or expense, as an asset or a liability. These entries must be recorded on a one page that is called a revenue and expense journal. Double entry bookkeeping records every transaction twice. In this system, an account is credited with a particular amount and it is also debited at the same time accordingly.Today, computerized system has huge demand as every organization whether big or small needs to manage its data and records accurately.