Taxes

Mark your calendars, fellow taxpayers. 2011 is an interesting year when it comes to filing dates.

The most notable tax timing issue primarily affects folks who itemize using Schedule A. The IRS says these taxpayers, as well as those who claim some specific deductions -- tuition and fees and educator expenses claimed directly on Form 1040 or 1040A -- will have to wait until mid- to late February to file.

Yes, this year the IRS is imitating a cable TV technician, giving us taxpayers a vague, open-ended time frame in which to cool our heels while we wail for service.

But it's not all the IRS' fault. In fact, it's mostly Congress' fault.

The IRS has to wait until laws are firmed up before it can program its computers. If it jumps the gun and the laws change, then the delay to undo/redo the programming will be longer.

This article is by Jim Suhr of The Associated Press.

Larry and Carolyn Herrin bristle at chatter that a future highway construction project could cut through their one-acre spread in Fairview Heights, Ill., forcing them to move their mobile home along with its two covered porches and attached two-car garage.

A new state law could make them pay dearly for it.

The measure, scheduled to take effect Saturday along with nearly 200 other new Illinois laws, requires a factory-assembled home on private property and not part of a mobile home park to be assessed and taxed as real property. Gone would be the days of such affected properties being taxed by counties at 15 cents per square foot -- a rate that drops over time as the home ages.

Assuming you can find businesses and government offices that aren't closed for the New Year's holiday, Friday is your final chance to make some last-minute 2010 tax moves. 

Here are some suggestions.

This article is by John Christoffersen of The Associated Press.

Upset the federal government recently extended tax cuts for the rich, three professors at Yale and Cornell universities have created a website that encourages wealthy Americans to give their tax savings to charities and send a political message in the process.

The professors started giveitbackforjobs.or​g to allow Americans "who have the means" to calculate what their tax cut would be and donate that amount to a charity.

"Extending the tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans is frankly unconscionable," Yale Law School professor Daniel Markovits said Wednesday. With the website's help, "donors can pledge their money to support the kinds of programs that will help families, create jobs, and set the country moving toward a just prosperity," the professors said in announcing the initiative.

You may have heard that H&R Block won't be offering tax "refund anticipation loans" this year.

Be grateful. You didn't want one anyway.

• Are you paying too much for car insurance?

With all the fees added, the loans can easily cost taxpayers an APR (annual percentage rate) of 85% to 1,300%, according to the National Consumer Law Center. The loans are usually marketed to low-income taxpayers.

This article is by Steve Ohlemacher of The Associated Press.

The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: tax breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses.

• Find a better mortgage rate

Millions of homeowners, however, might feel like they got a lump of coal. Homeowners who don't itemize their deductions will lose a tax break for paying local property taxes.

Innovative enforcement of Indiana's tax evasion laws has put the state at the forefront of "puppy protection."

Andrew Swain, head of the Indiana Attorney General's Revenue Division, is being lauded for coming up with the idea of using tax statutes to shut down unlicensed, commercial dog-breeding operations that put profits before animal welfare.   

Swain's boss, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, says the closing of squalid puppy mills is a bonus. What really motivated him was going after tax cheats, a category he and Swain believe applies to some of the state's commercial dog breeders.

Why the tax suspicion? Because many dog breeding operators deal in cash-and-carry transactions on which they allegedly fail to pay income and sales taxes.