If you have insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace, you may be getting advance payments of the premium tax credit. These are paid directly to your insurance company to lower your monthly premium. Changes in your income or family size may affect your premium tax credit. If your circumstances have changed, the time is right for a mid-year checkup to see if you need to adjust the premium assistance you are receiving. You should report changes that have occurred since you signed up for your health insurance plan to your Marketplace as they occur.

Changes in circumstances that you should report to the Marketplace include, but are not limited to:
• an increase or decrease in your income
• marriage or divorce
• the birth or adoption of a child
• starting a job with health insurance
• gaining or losing your eligibility for other health care coverage
• changing your residence

Reporting the changes will help you avoid getting too much or too little advance payment of the premium tax credit. Getting too much means you may owe additional money or get a smaller refund when you file your taxes. Getting too little could mean missing out on premium assistance to reduce your monthly premiums.

Repayments of excess premium assistance may be limited to an amount between $400 and $2,500 depending on your income and filing status. However, if advance payment of the premium tax credit was made but your income for the year turns out to be too high to receive the premium tax credit, you will have to repay all of the payments that were made on your behalf, with no limitation. Therefore, it is important that you report changes in circumstances that may have occurred since you signed up for your plan.

Changes in circumstances also may qualify you for a special enrollment period to change or get insurance through the Marketplace. In most cases, if you qualify for the special enrollment period, you will have sixty days to enroll following the change in circumstances. You can find Information about special enrollment at HealthCare.gov.

If you receive advance payment of the Premium Tax Credit in 2014 it is important that you report changes in circumstances, such as changes in your income or family size, to your Health Insurance Marketplace. You should also notify the Marketplace when you move out of the area covered by your current Marketplace plan. Advance payments of the premium tax credit provide financial assistance to help you pay for the insurance you buy through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Reporting changes will help you get the proper type and amount of financial assistance so you can avoid getting too much or too little in advance.

Do you know that if you sell your home and make a profit, the gain may not be taxable?

That’s just one key tax rule that you should know. Here are ten facts to keep in mind if you sell your home this year.

1. If you have a capital gain on the sale of your home, you may be able to exclude your gain from tax. This rule may apply if you owned and used it as your main home for at least two out of the five years before the date of sale.

2. There are exceptions to the ownership and use rules. Some exceptions apply to persons with a disability. Some apply to certain members of the military and certain government and Peace Corps workers. For details see Publication 523, Selling Your Home.

3. The most gain you can exclude is $250,000. This limit is $500,000 for joint returns. The Net Investment Income Tax will not apply to the excluded gain.

4. If the gain is not taxable, you may not need to report the sale to the IRS on your tax return.

5. You must report the sale on your tax return if you can’t exclude all or part of the gain. And you must report the sale if you choose not to claim the exclusion. That’s also true if you get Form 1099-S, Proceeds From Real Estate Transactions. If you report the sale you should review the Questions and Answers on the Net Investment Income Tax on IRS.gov.

6. Generally, you can exclude the gain from the sale of your main home only once every two years.

7. If you own more than one home, you may only exclude the gain on the sale of your main home. Your main home usually is the home that you live in most of the time.

8. If you claimed the first-time homebuyer credit when you bought the home, special rules apply to the sale. For more on those rules see Publication 523.

9. If you sell your main home at a loss, you can’t deduct it.

10. After you sell your home and move, be sure to give your new address to the IRS. You can send the IRS a completed Form 8822, Change of Address, to do this.

If you missed the April 15 tax filing deadline, don’t panic. Here’s some advice from the IRS.

• File as soon as you can. If you owe taxes, you should file and pay as soon as you can. This will help minimize the interest and penalty charges. There is no penalty for filing a late return if you are due a refund.

• IRS Free File is your best option. Everyone can use IRS Free File to e-file their federal taxes for free. If your income was $58,000 or less, you can use free brand-name software. If you made more than $58,000 and are comfortable preparing your own tax return, use Free File Fillable Forms to e-file. This program uses the electronic versions of paper IRS forms. IRS Free File is available through Oct. 15 only through IRS.gov.

• IRS E-file is still available. IRS e-file is available through Oct. 15. E-file is the easiest, safest and most accurate way to file your taxes. With e-file you receive confirmation that the IRS received your tax return. If you e-file and choose direct deposit of your refund, you’ll normally get it within 21 days.

• Pay as much as you can. If you owe tax but can’t pay it all at once, try to pay as much as you can when you file your tax return. Pay the remaining balance as soon as possible to stop further penalties and interest.

• Make a payment agreement online. If you need more time to pay your taxes, you can apply for a payment plan with the IRS. The easiest way to apply is to use the IRS Online Payment Agreement tool. You can also mail Form 9465, Installment Agreement Request. The tool and form are both available on IRS.gov.

• A refund may be waiting. If you’re due a refund, you should file as soon as possible to get it. Even if you are not required to file, you may still get a refund. This could apply if you had taxes withheld from your wages or you qualify for certain tax credits. If you don’t file your return within three years, you could forfeit your right to the refund.

If you owe taxes with your tax return this year, you should know a few things before you file. Here are 10 helpful tips from the IRS about how to pay your federal taxes.

1. Never send cash.

2. If you e-file, you can file and pay in a single step with an electronic funds withdrawal. If you e-file on your own, you can use your tax preparation software to make the withdrawal. If you use a tax preparer to e-file, you can ask the preparer to make your tax payment electronically.

3. You can pay taxes electronically 24/7 on IRS.gov. Just click on the ‘Payments’ tab near the top left of the home page for details.

4. You can also pay by check or money order. Make your check or money order payable to the “United States Treasury.”

5. Whether you e-file your tax return or file on paper, you can also pay with a credit or debit card. The company that processes your payment will charge a processing fee.

6. You may be able to deduct the credit or debit card processing fee on next year’s return. It’s claimed on Schedule A, Itemized Deductions. The fee is a miscellaneous itemized deduction subject to the 2 percent limit.

7. Be sure to write your name, address and daytime phone number on the front of your payment. Also, write the tax year, form number you are filing and your Social Security number.

8. Complete Form 1040-V, Payment Voucher, and mail it with your tax return and payment to the IRS. Make sure you send it to the address listed on the back of Form 1040-V. This will help the IRS process your payment and post it to your account. You can get the form on IRS.gov.

9. Remember to enclose your payment with your tax return but do not staple it to any tax form.

10. For more information, call 800-829-4477 and select TeleTax Topic 158, Ensuring Proper Credit of Payments. You can also get information in the instructions for Form 1040-V.

If you don’t have taxes withheld from your pay, or you don’t have enough tax withheld, then you may need to make estimated tax payments. If you’re self-employed you normally have to pay your taxes this way.

Here are six tips you should know about estimated taxes:

1. You should pay estimated taxes in 2014 if you expect to owe $1,000 or more when you file your federal tax return. Special rules apply to farmers and fishermen.

2. Estimate the amount of income you expect to receive for the year to determine the amount of taxes you may owe. Make sure that you take into account any tax deductions and credits that you will be eligible to claim. Life changes during the year, such as a change in marital status or the birth of a child, can affect your taxes.

3. You normally make estimated tax payments four times a year. The dates that apply to most people are April 15, June 16 and Sept. 15 in 2014, and Jan. 15, 2015.

4. You may pay online or by phone. You may also pay by check or money order, or by credit or debit card. If you mail your payments to the IRS, use the payment vouchers that come with Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals.

5. Check out the electronic payment options on IRS.gov. The Electronic Filing Tax Payment System is a free and easy way to make your payments electronically.

6. Use Form 1040-ES and its instructions to figure your estimated taxes.

Residential Energy Tax Credits are Back (Principal Residence only with a lifetime maximum amount of $500)

Starting with 2013 taxpayers under 65 won’t be able to deduct medical expenses until they exceed 10% of AGI, up from 7.5% in 2012.

Maximum amount of Earned Income Credit for 2013 is $6,044 with claiming 3 children.

Maximum Social Security Wages were raised to $113,700 up from $110,100. That makes withholding taxes for social security go to $7,049.40 up from $4,624.20.

The standard deduction for 2013 for MFJ & QW will be $12,200. HOH will be $8,950. Single and MFS will be $6,100.

Capital gains rates for 2013 and beyond now can go up as high as 20% of the gain.

The tax brackets have been restructured with the largest now being 39.6%.

The Internal Revenue Service announced on Tuesday that it will delay the start of the 2014 tax filing season by as much as two weeks due to delays caused by the recent closure of the federal government.

Citing the need for “adequate time to program and test tax processing systems,” the service announced that it expected a one- to two-week delay in the start of tax season, and that it would start accepting and processing 2013 individual tax returns no earlier than Jan. 28, 2014, and no later than February 4. Tax season had been expected to start on January 21.

Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel said in the statement that the service was exploring options to shorten the expected delay, but also noted, “Readying our systems to handle the tax season is an intricate, detailed process, and we must take the time to get it right. The adjustment to the start of the filing season provides us the necessary time to program, test and validate our systems so that we can provide a smooth filing and refund process for the nation’s taxpayers.”

The 16-day government shutdown came during the peak period for preparing IRS systems for the upcoming tax season, which involves programming, testing and deployment of more than 50 systems.

About 90 percent of IRS operations were closed during the shutdown, with some major workstreams closed entirely, and the IRS noted that it is also facing extra demands due to the need for systems to prevent refund fraud and ID theft — and that it is still dealing with a backlog of over 1.4 million pieces of correspondence that piled up during the shutdown.

The official start date will be announced in December.

ALERT!!!! Due to the recent government shutdown, all IRS offices are closed. This does not mean that your tax returns that were extended are not still due on October 15th nor any tax payments that you owe are not still due. It just means that we/you have no way of contacting the IRS of any problems that may occur. The IRS will resume business as usual when the shutdown is over.

The Internal Revenue Service is giving relief from late-payment tax penalties to individuals and businesses that request a tax-filing extension because they are attaching to their returns any of the forms that couldn’t be filed until after January. The relief applies to the late-payment penalty, normally 0.5 percent per month, charged on tax payments made after the regular filing deadline. This relief applies to any of the forms delayed until February or March, primarily due to the January enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act. Taxpayers using forms claiming such tax benefits as depreciation deductions and a variety of business credits qualify for this relief. A complete list of eligible forms can be found in Notice 2013-24, posted today on IRS.gov.