Allan Rolnick's (taxcoach) Blog

Graduation season is here, and grads of all ages are excited to move on! Kindergartners are celebrating mastery of letters, shapes, and not eating crayons. Awkward eighth-graders just want to finish getting through puberty. High-schoolers are looking forward to careers, college, and moving out of...

  Three of the most frightening words in the English language are Internal Revenue Service. Few government agencies can strike fear into the heart of citizens like the IRS, and the tax agency enjoys powers most parts of the government simply do not have. Unlike those other government agencies, th...

 Last weekend, Hollywood made history. Disney's three-hour popcorn epic, Avengers: Endgame sent box-office records scrambling in panic, grossing $350 million here in the U.S. And $330 million in China. And $600 million more in another 43 countries. It's the first movie to top a billion dollars in i...

 When it comes to raising revenue, governments usually find it most efficient to follow the immortal advice of bank robber Willie Sutton and go "where the money is." They turn to income, payroll, property, and sales taxes to fund most of their operations. They'll throw in the occasional gas tax o...

  Sometimes taxpayer’s with IRS tax problems decide to face the IRS on their own. Sometimes they hire a professional like a CPA, Attorney or EA, but not someone who specializes in tax resolution. The best thing to do when faced with an IRS Problem is to hire an expert in tax resolution so you can...

 Sunday night, millions of Game of Thronesfans who waited breathlessly for 20 months finally got rewarded with their next installment what's become the biggest TV show on the planet. Cersei discovered (redacted). Jon Snow learned that .... (sorry, no spoilers here). And that guy with the eye patc...

On April 14, millions of fans gathered around the biggest screen they can find for the start of one final season in Westeros, the setting of George R.R. Martin's epic Game of Thrones. The show, which producers pitched as "The Sopranos in Middle Earth," has leaped from television into the broader...

  The widespread availability of tax preparation software has made Do-It-Yourself tax prep easier than ever before. These software packages are simple to use, with step-by-step instructions and built-in checklists that make mistakes less likely.  But mistakes do happen, and when they do, the IRS ...

 Tax audit. It’s a phrase that can momentarily stop the heart of even the most even-keeled taxpayer. The thought of having our income taxes reviewed by the government and potentially having to pay an untold amount of additional taxes and penalties is frightening to most people.  If you’re in the ...

 Tax filing season is here again, and millions of hardworking Americans are already dreaming of those fat refund checks. Unfortunately, many of them may be disappointed this year. The combination of recent changes to the tax law and updates to employer withholding tables have shrunk the size of t...