SOHO Tax Tips regarding online resources

Tax tips are now available online using your iPhone or Droid. Thanks to an article entitled “Using Social Media To Get Tax Information” on Boston.com, here is a list of online resources available from both the Internal Revenue Service website and social media portals that can be useful not just during tax season but throughout the calendar year. The article at Boston.com lists resources that are accessible from either your desktop computer or mobile phone.  In fact, IRS2Go is a mobile app for both Apple and Android users. It provides personal tax refund information and other tax tips and tax-related information.

YouTube Tax Tips -

IRS Videos – A YouTube resource that provides IRS information in English and other languages.

American Sign Language Videos – A similar online resource that provides information in American Sign Language.

Multilingual Videos – Another similar online resource that provides information in a variety of foreign languages.

Twitter Tax Tips -

@IRSnews – information for the public, press, and practitioners

@IRStaxpros – information for professional tax preparers

@IRSenEspanol – news and information in Spanish

@Recruitment IRS – IRS Human Capital Office

@YourVoiceatIRS – a taxpayer advocate service

Audio Tax Tips -

The IRS also provides tax tips in audio files for podcasts. Information regarding this special resource is available from the IRS Newsroom.

This information was originally provided on July 29, 2011 from the Article Collections at Boston.com.

Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)

Do you have business interest in a foreign bank or have any foreign financial accounts? We have provided information especially for US taxpayers living abroad or resident aliens regarding filing a personal income tax return. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has updated their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) regarding Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (commonly referred to as FBAR) including specifically updated FBAR filing requirements and updated FBAR financial accounts.

Any taxpayer who has a financial interest that exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year including signature authority (or any other authority of the account) in a foreign country should review this information carefully. A “financial account” is defined as any banking institution, foreign financial securities or derivatives, or other financially related instruments.

Does your financial interests exceed $10,000 during the calendar year?

The IRS considers a country as “foreign” if the location geographically resides outside the United States, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, or any territories or possessions of the US including Guam, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands.

The official IRS website, irs.gov, provides a variety of current and relevant topics and references for taxpayers with international financial dealings. Consult with an experienced tax professional before you file a personal income tax return that involves ANY foreign income or matters that pertain to a foreign bank and financial accounts.

A US Patent was issued to Dual Parking Meter Company located in Oklahoma City, OK, US on May 24, 1938 for a coin controlled parking meter “for measuring the time of occupancy or use of parking or other space, for the use of which it is desirous an incidental charge be made upon a time basis.”

Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City, OK, US invented this mechanical device to solve “downtown parking problems” according to the well-known blog, Wired.  Magee states in his patent how his device “will display a signal, the signal being arranged to disappear from view when the predetermined permitted time of occupancy has elapsed…”  Even in this original formulation, the inventor intended for the device to “expose to view the coin most recently inserted therein…” and a container for “money received by the machines.”   The advanced search feature in the Patents.com invention database shows similar, more current patent claims that relate to this original coin controlled parking meter such as ticket printing parking meters, wireless parking meters, smart parking meters, and green parking meters.

The inventor in his patent did not elaborate about the “container for receiving the coins” nor have we been able to locate specific patent claims regarding how revenues from the “coin container” were to be disbursed.   However, the blog posting mentions that Magee was a “fine upstanding lawyer, newspaper editor and occasional senate candidate…”!  Aside from allegedly solving inner city congestion and perhaps profiting from the manufacture of meters to other municipalities both near and far, we are struck by the parallel positioning of “senate candidate” and “money received”.

The vision of row after row of hungry, mechanical heads continually consuming our nickels, dimes, and now quarters, every hour of every day makes us sad as we search our pockets for more spare change!  The “incidental charge” for “time of occupancy or use of parking” has extended far beyond physical coin-operated parking meters in downtown Oklahoma City… Unfortunately even now, our quarters and dollars are still “sucked up” by little, gray mechanical “heads”.  Whether or not Magee made his way from Oklahoma City to Washington, DC, US, doesn’t matter; his innovative ideas did, and live on, without fear of patent infringement, throughout the halls of the US Congress!

Source: Wired

Reprinted from the Patents.com Community Blog