Affordable Care Act - Tax Implications

Affordable Care Act - Tax Implications

Victory Tax Solutions, LLC

"America's Trusted Tax Team"

The Affordable Care Act, known commonly as Obamacare, stands to affect taxpayers significantly for the first time as they begin to file their 2014 tax returns. For the first time, the IRS is asking individual taxpayers if they had "Minimum Essential Coverage" during the tax year. Failure to obtain either Minimum Essential Coverage or an exemption means the taxpayer pays a penalty on their tax return.

Minimum essential coverage means that a taxpayer has coverage for at least 9 months during the qualifying tax year. To have coverage for 1 month means the taxpayer must only have health coverage during at least 1 day of that month. The health insurance plan must also meet minimum requirements under the health care law. Generally, most health insurance plans meet the requirements of minimum essential coverage, and specialty plans such as workers compensation, accident/disability insurance, or specialty service plans do not qualify.

There are also nine categories of exemptions that exclude taxpayers from the requirement of minimum essential coverage. They are:

  1. Religious conscience
  2. Health care-sharing ministry membership
  3. Member of a federally recognized Indian tribe
  4. No federal income tax filing requirement, even if the taxpayer chooses to file
  5. A short coverage gap of less than three months
  6. Documented hardship showing inability to obtain coverage
  7. Affordability, wherein the minimum premium available is greater than 8 percent of household income
  8. In jail or prison
  9. Not lawfully present in the United States

In order to obtain validation of an exemption, a taxpayer must go through the health care marketplace to obtain their exemption number prior to filing the tax return.

If a taxpayer is charged a penalty by the IRS for not meeting minimum essential coverage or qualifying for an exemption but owes no other tax debt, the Affordable Care Act prohibits the IRS from either filing a tax lien or seizing the taxpayer's property in the form of levies, garnishments, or other seizures. However, the IRS can still collect the funds owed through the seizure of federal or state tax refunds, payment plans, or voluntary payments to the IRS.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please call Victory Tax Solutions for a free consultation. Our toll free number is 877-772-0123.

IRS Tax Relief

Victory Tax Solutions, LLC

“America’s Trusted Tax Team”

IRS Tax Relief

What is IRS tax relief? IRS Tax Relief can be achieved when you solve your IRS tax debt problems.  There are many people out there struggling with IRS tax debt.  IRS debt could stem from many things including under withholding, a mistake on your tax return, or early withdrawal from retirement plans.  IRS tax debt can result in the IRS trying to seize your money in several different ways including liens and levies against you wages and social security. Don’t let yourself be someone that is held back by IRS tax debt.

There are several ways that IRS Tax Relief can be achieved.

Accurate Tax Returns – By having our tax professionals prepare your tax returns you can be confident that they will be prepared correctly.  Tax returns that are prepared correctly insure that you are getting back all the money that you deserve.  If your tax returns were prepared incorrectly in the past Victory Tax Solutions may be able to file reconsideration returns to adjust the amount that you owe to the IRS.

Installment Agreements – There are several different repayment plans available depending on your income, ability to pay and amount of debt.  Our tax attorneys can help set you up in the right type of installment agreement.

Currently Not Collectible – Depending on your ability to pay the amount you owe to the IRS, you may qualify for currently not collectible status.  If you qualify for currently not collectible the IRS will stop all collection activity including levies. Our tax attorneys will collect financial information and determine whether you may qualify for currently not collectible status.

Offers in Compromise- Depending on the amount of tax you owe and your income you might be eligible to pay less than the full amount of tax owed.  Offers in Compromise include a full financial review and take several months for a determination to be made.

The IRS can be extremely difficult to work with on your own. Here at Victory Tax Solutions we specialize in IRS Tax Relief.  Let us deal with the IRS for you!

You can trust our tax professionals to file your current or back tax returns correctly and efficiently. If you do owe money to the IRS we will find the resolution that will work best for you.

Call Victory Tax Solutions to speak with one of our account executives. The call is toll free 1-877-772-0123.

Payroll Tax Debt Relief

Victory Tax Solutions 

“America’s Trusted Tax Team”

What is IRS Payroll Tax Debt? IRS Payroll Tax Debt is money owed to the IRS for failure to withhold and/or pay required taxes on behalf of your employees. Who is an employee? If you have the right to control what a worker does and how they do it, likely they can be considered your employee.

Most employers must withhold, deposit, report and pay several different types of employment taxes. These taxes include Income Tax, FICA and FUTA:

  • Income Tax: Money owed by the employee individually, taken from their wages to foster timely payment.
  • FICA: Social Security and Medicare taxes owed to the government. Half of the tax is owed by the employer, and half is owed by the employee.
  • FUTA: Federal unemployment tax, owed by the employer.

To determine how much federal income tax to withhold on behalf of your employees you should look at the W-4s you have on file for your employees. You can encourage your employees to file new W-4s at the beginning of each year, especially if they owed taxes on their most recent return.

Once you have properly withheld taxes from your employees these taxes have to be deposited and reported. At the end of each year a W-2 has be prepared for each of your employees that reports wages, tips or other compensation. 

It is extremely important as an employer that you withhold correctly and deposit the withheld taxes in order to avoid IRS Payroll Tax Debt. One form of IRS Payroll Tax Debt is a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty. A Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP) is assessed against the owner or manager in charge of employment personally. It does not erase or transfer the debt owed by the company, it just doubles the overall amount owed to the government.

The Trust Fund Recovery Penalty can be imposed on any person that the IRS determines to be responsible for paying, collecting, or accounting for the taxes and acted willful in not doing so. A responsible party can be a partner, sole proprietor, office of the corporation, or an employee of the business. If the responsible person pays other business expenses instead of withholding taxes the IRS can find that you willfully failed to pay taxes and impose a Trust Fund Recover Penalty. The penalty is the full amount of the unpaid trust fund tax plus interest.

It is important that you try to avoid Trust Fund Recover Penalty by making sure employment taxes are collected and paid to the IRS timely. Additionally, if the IRS is proposing an assessment of TFRP, or has requested an interview, you have the right to be represented through that process. Defending yourself against TFRP assessment can be tricky, as the IRS looks at many factors to reach their determination. Tax Attorneys are typically skilled in these situations, and may help taxpayers avoid significant personal payroll tax debt.

If you are having issues with IRS Payroll Tax Debt it is important you contact a Tax Attorney right away. Here at Victory Tax Solutions we dedicate ourselves to helping employers with Payroll Tax Debt or Trust Fund Recovery Penalties.

Call Victory Tax Solutions today to speak with one of our account executives. The call is toll free 1-877-772-0123.

Tax Relief Programs

by Louis Meeks on January 3, 2015 in Blog

Tax Relief Programs

Victory Tax Solutions, LLC

“America’s Trusted Tax Team”

Searching for the right tax relief program can be tricky, with the many avenues and guidelines that the IRS uses in establishing who qualifies for which tax relief programs.   When exploring your options, it is important to understand that the IRS provides standard deductions which determine what the IRS will allow as an expense for the household, against any income. Many tax relief programs are based upon the tax payers ability to pay.  So, how does the IRS determine whether they believe you have “the ability to pay”?

The answer lies in what the IRS refers to as “standard deductions”.  These “standard deductions” are used to determine how much “disposable income” you have to pay them back for back taxes.

As an example, the IRS might give you a “standard deduction” expense for your mortgage of $1,000 for your specific city and state.  Let’s assume you actually have a mortgage of $1,500. When looking at this example, the question arises as to whether the IRS allows you to deduct the  $500 of actual expenses from the mortgage when determining how much you can afford to pay them back.  The bad news is the IRS does not care, and does not give your credit for your real mortgage cost. In our example, your mortgage expense that exceeds the “standard deduction” ($500) is not allowed.  The IRS treats that extra $500 mortgage expense as if it does not exist.  This is the harsh reality that the IRS places on all of us taxpayers with back tax problems in search of a tax relief program.

As you can extrapolate from that example, the IRS is acting in their best interest, and not yours. As stated earlier, most tax relief programs are determined by the IRS rules on your ability to pay.

However, if you find a trustworthy tax resolution firm that understands the IRS tax code as well or better than most IRS agents, you will be in a much better position to get results that favor you.

At Victory Tax Solutions, we have many experts in this field are available on a daily basis here at Victory Tax Solutions. Our team, consisting of CPAs and tax attorneys are exactly that, experts. Let the professionals handle your tax issue. They know how to use the IRS codes against the IRS directly and can often resolve your tax issue in much more favorable terms than you can do yourself.

Some tax reliefs programs that are available for taxpayers are as follows:

  1. Several types of installment agreements
  2. Offer in Compromise
  3. Currently Not Collectible status
  4. Installment Agreements

The Tax Relief Programs above are just a few of the programs you may consider.  However….A friendly warning to all taxpayers reading this blog, DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

Unfortunately, our industry is littered with tax resolution companies whose employees say all the right things on the phone to reel you in and get your money.  However, they do not deliver great results.  At Victory Tax Solutions, we have the most ethical team in the industry.  We have an “A” rating with the Better Business Bureau.  And, most importantly for you, we have the most client friendly full money back guarantee in the industry!

The Victory Tax Solutions team is led by Senior Tax Attorneys, CPA’s and paralegals.  We have a great combination of law school education, knowledge of the tax laws, experience working with the IRS and always working to get the best possible outcome for our clients.

If you are interested in learning more about all the different Tax Relief Programs you may be eligible for, please call Victory Tax Solutions today for a free consultation with one of our Senior Account Executives.  We would love to help you.  Our toll free number is 877-772-0123.

 

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