If you haven’t heard by now, the following forms are not going to be ready for e-file until February 14th. Now, for most people who are not itemizing, it doesn’t mean a whole lot.

There was a little confusion about education credit not being ready,but if you look carefully at this list below you will find that only form not being ready for education purposes is Form 8917, Tuition and Fees Deduction.

However i f you are one of those people who will have to wait, what you can do is go ahead and prepare your taxes and just put them on hold until  IRS is ready to accept them.

• Schedule A, Itemized Deductions
• Form 3800, General Business Credit
• Form 4684, Casualties and Thefts
• Form 5405, First-Time Homebuyer Credit and Repayment of the Credit (Page 2)
• Form 6478, Alcohol and Cellulosic Biofuel Fuels Credit
• Form 8834, Qualified Plug-in Electric and Electric Vehicle Credit
• Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit
• Form 8910, Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit
• Form 8917, Tuition and Fees Deduction
• Form 8936, Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit
  

Tax Foundation came out with a recent tax revenue survey for the 33 major industrialized nations. As we can see below,  United States is still on the lower end. On average, U.S. cashes 26.1% of GDP vs. average of 34.8% for major industrialized nations. It’s interesting to note  Mexico with smallest tax burden with ” only ” 21%.

Have you been treating your house as a gambling chips in Las Vegas? If so, than you may find this article relevant to you. The truth is so many of us has jeopardize our biggest investment during the past decade or so; now many of us are faced with big income tax bill !!! The bill comes in form of CANCELED DEBT.

If you find yourself in above mentioned situation don’t give up just jet. There may be a hope.
Your new three favorite words may be: relief, insolvency and gift.

Based on 2007 mortgage debt relief homeowners  can exclude canceled debt on their principal residence on up to 2 million. It includes second mortgage  as long you used those funds to improve the primary residence.

Your next favorite word – insolvency. Insolvency is the term used when your total debt is overlapping all of your net worth. One thing you must be careful with this is to include ALL of your assets including  exempt assets  which are out of reach from your creditors ( 401k, IRA’s, pension plan). On the other hand you can include ALL of your indebtedness as well.

And thirdly, unlikely brake, you may get  from the lender in the form of gift. Basically, if lender cancels your debt as a gift to you it does not draw tax consequences. Even though this would be very unusual it would make sense to negotiate when doing short sale or deed in lue.

I’m not sure if it would work to ask bank to treat their lost as gift to you, but I would like to hear from any of you on your experience dealing with lenders and IRS. Please don’t hesitate to share your experience down in coments area.

OVERLOOKED DEDUCTION ON CREDIT CARD FEES

One small but often overlooked tax deduction is credit card fee that you may acquire when paying your income tax. There is,  however,  threshold of 2 percent on your adjusted gross income since it is part of itemized miscellaneous deduction.

Did you know:

By answering couple of simple questions, tax payers can check a status of their refund. Just click the image below.