IRS to Hold Special Open House Saturday, Sept. 25 for Veterans and Persons with Disabilities

IRS to Hold Special Open House Saturday, Sept. 25 for Veterans and Persons with Disabilities

by | Sep 16, 2010 | Archives

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service will host a special nationwide open house on Saturday, Sept. 25 to help taxpayers –– especially veterans and people with disabilities –– solve tax problems and respond to IRS notices.

One hundred offices, at least one in every state, will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time. IRS staff will be available on site or by telephone to help taxpayers work through issues and leave with solutions.

In many locations, the IRS will partner with organizations that serve veterans and the disabled to offer additional help and information to people in these communities. Partner organizations include the National Disability Institute (NDI), Vets First, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Council on Independent Living and the American Legion.

“Taxpayers have tremendous success solving their tax issues at our open houses,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said. “I want to encourage veterans and people with disabilities to come in on Sept. 25. Just like we reached out earlier this year to small businesses and victims of the Gulf Oil Spill, we want to help other taxpayers put their toughest problems behind them.”

IRS locations will be equipped to handle issues involving notices and payments, return preparation, audits and a variety of other issues. At a previous IRS open house on June 5, over 6,700 taxpayers sought and received assistance and 96 percent had their issues resolved the same day.

At the Sept. 25 open house, anyone who has a tax question or has received a notice can speak with an IRS employee to get an answer to their question or a clear explanation of what is necessary to satisfy the request. A taxpayer who cannot pay a balance due can find out whether an installment agreement is appropriate and, if so, fill out the paperwork then and there. Assistance with offers-in-compromise — an agreement between a taxpayer and the IRS that settles the taxpayer’s debt for less than the full amount owed — will also be available. Likewise, a taxpayer struggling to complete a certain IRS form or schedule can work directly with IRS staff to get the job done.

Taxpayers requiring special services, such as interpretation for the deaf or hard of hearing, should check local listings and call the local IRS Office/Taxpayer Assistance Center ahead of time to schedule an appointment.

The open house on Sept. 25 is the third of three events scheduled after this year’s tax season. Plans are underway for similar events next year. Details will be available at a later date.

Reminder for Small Tax-Exempt Organizations

The IRS also encourages representatives of small tax-exempt charitable community organizations, many of which serve people with disabilities and veterans, to file Form 990-N before the Oct. 15 deadline. Community organizations that fail to file a Form 990-N by this date risk losing their tax exempt status. As of June 30, more than 320,000 organizations were at risk of losing their exempt status.

3 Life Changing Events That May Change Your Insurance Needs

3 Life Changing Events That May Change Your Insurance Needs

by | Sep 14, 2010 | Archives

Your life insurance coverage should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure you have adequate coverage, but a major life change is a particularly important time to assess your life insurance needs. Here are three life events when you should review your life insurance policy:

1) A change in family situation: Did you get married, divorced, have a baby, adopt children, or change jobs? Any of these life events are likely to change the amount of life insurance coverage you need.

2) An upward change in your income: A big promotion or a raise may be a good reason to review your coverage. Life insurance is often purchased to replace the income of the breadwinner in a family. If your income increases, you may need to review the face value (the amount paid to beneficiaries at the policyholder’s death) of your life insurance policy.

3) Retirement: If retirement is just around the corner, it may be time to assess your life insurance policy. According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), life insurance can keep surviving spouses from receiving reduced Social Security benefits. For example, those who begin collecting Social Security survivors benefits at age 60, rather than at the full-benefit age of 66 or 67, receive a permanently reduced Social Security benefit. Having life insurance coverage in place may prevent your spouse from having to live on less.

These may not be the only reasons to review your policy; however, these events cover three times in your life when you should review your life insurance needs. Please contact me if you need to review your coverage.

Don’t Be Afraid to Calculate How Much Life Insurance You Need—It’s Easier Than You Think

Don’t Be Afraid to Calculate How Much Life Insurance You Need—It’s Easier Than You Think

by | Sep 13, 2010 | Archives

I read an excellent article, “How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?” written by Kimberly Lankford in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. It stated that standard formulas for figuring out how much life insurance you need, such as buying coverage equal to eight to 10 times your annual income, are inadequate shortcuts.

It further states that instead of relying on rules of thumb, you’re better off taking a systematic approach to figuring out your life-insurance needs. Life experiences such as marriage, parenthood, homeownership, college expenses, changing jobs with different employee benefits and the reality of lower investment returns on devastated investment funds require you to evaluate these factors in determining the appropriate insurance types and amounts.

The article then went on to discuss the various financial areas to review in this decision: income replacement, final expenses, education expenses, mortgages and other debts. But you don’t need to do this the hard way. Just use my online Life Insurance Needs Calculator for unbiased, third-party results, and then together we can work to determine the type of life insurance that may be best for you.

I want the decision-making process to be as simple as possible for you—and the results may just surprise you. Contact me now.