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Life Changes The Mega Millions jackpot has grown to an estimated $1.25 billion this week, the fourth-largest prize in the game’s history. While states receive a chunk of every lottery ticket, the federal government doesn’t collect its share until there’s a winner, a tax expert says. The next Mega Millions drawing is at 11 p.m. […]

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says IRS efforts, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, will help reduce the federal deficit by $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years. The agency’s new program will help reduce the burden of processing the 200 million paper documents received each year at a cost of around $40 million annually. U.S.

The IRS has unveiled plans to offer digital correspondence for the 2024 season and aims to offer “paperless processing” for tax returns in 2025. It’s expected the plan will eliminate up to 200 million pieces of paper every year, slash processing times by half and speed up refunds by several weeks. “This is truly a

The employee retention credit, worth thousands per employee, was enacted to support small businesses affected by shutdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. Scrutiny of the pandemic-era tax credit intensified this week among lawmakers, the IRS and tax professionals. “The further we get from the pandemic, we believe the percentage of legitimate claims coming in is declining,”

The IRS on Monday halted a decadeslong practice of unannounced visits to homes or businesses to collect unpaid balances for most taxpayers. The decision comes amid safety concerns from IRS employees and taxpayers, according to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. Effective immediately, the agency will now make initial contact via mailed letters to schedule in-person meetings.

A group of lawmakers led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are calling on the Biden administration to investigate possibly illegal sharing of taxpayer information by tax prep software companies with tech platforms like Meta and Google. In a letter, the lawmakers laid out key findings from their own probe that expanded on reporting from The

Hunter Biden attends an official State Dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 22, 2023.  Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images An attorney for Hunter Biden says purported screenshots of a text message from Hunter Biden to a potential Chinese business

Inflation adjustments boosted the long-term capital gains tax brackets for 2023, which apply to investments owned for more than one year. This means it takes more income to reach the 15% or 20% brackets and you may owe 0% capital gains taxes for 2023, depending on your income. With taxable income below thresholds, you can

The recent tax season was relatively smooth compared with 2022, but national taxpayer advocate Erin Collins still sees room for growth. The backlog of original paper returns dropped significantly, refunds arrived more quickly and customer service improved, according to Collins’ report. However, the agency has lingering problems, including a pileup of amended returns and taxpayer

The IRS is weighing guidance for small businesses that wrongly claimed the employee retention tax credit, according to the national taxpayer advocate. As of June 14, there were roughly 537,000 unprocessed Forms 941-X, which businesses must file for amended returns to claim the employee retention credit for 2020 or 2021. Erin M. Collins, National Taxpayer