Thursday 27 June 2013

5 Tips for Hiring a Good Tax Attorney in New York

Are you going to hire a New York tax attorney? If yes, you must consider certain factors before you choose one as hiring a lawyer needs a lot of per-planning to get a good deal. Here are top 5 tips that will help you to find a good tax attorney in New York

tax attorney in new york

1.Consider the reason At first, you need to ask yourself why you want to hire a tax attorney. Is it because you need professional help in calculating your taxes and filing tax return or do you need some legal help for fighting a court case? Most of the times, people hire the most renowned lawyers without considering his/her specialization, but that is not very feasible. You need to hire a tax lawyer who has the right experience and expertise to handle your unique case.

2.Does some online research: Online research is a good option to make a potential list of the lawyers available in your locality. Once you have this list, you can contact the lawyer directly for a free, no-obligation initial consultation to decide whom to hire for your needs.

 3.Ask for personal referrals It has been always helpful to ask for help from people you know. Find out if someone amongst your friends, family or acquaintances has hired a tax attorney in the past and ask for specific references like whom you should hire or whom you should avoid etc.

4.Check out if s/he is licensed: Whenever you are going to hire a tax attorney, make sure he is registered with the state bar association and also licensed to practice as a tax lawyer. Also check with the BBB if any sort of complaint has been lodged against him/her, ever and if yes, how were they resolved.

5.Ask for a list of past clients: You can always ask your shortlisted best tax attorney for a list of past clients, and contact a few of these to get feedback about how that particular attorney has helped him/her. Remember - professional lawyers will always provide you with a list of his/her past customers without any hesitation. Armed with these tips, you are sure to find a reliable and experienced tax attorney in New York.

Thursday 20 June 2013

5 Point You Should Know When File Your Tax Return

Filing your tax return is an important task, which should be performed with great care. Even a little inaccuracy or ambiguity may affect your credit history adversely. It is advisable to get it done by a professional if you don’t want to get into any kind of complications. Consider hiring the services of New York tax help to sail through the entire process with ease. But before that, here are five points that you must know while filing your tax return – 

Tax Return
Tax Return

  • If you are a self-employed tax payer, the payroll tax credit will affect you. Usually, the payroll tax credit is divided between the employee and the employer, where each pays 7.65% of eligible wages. But in case you are self-employed, you will have to pay both the halves, i.e. 15.3% in total. 
  • If you forgot to include some important detail in the tax return, this year you can correct it by using the new IRS tool, named “Where’s My Amended Return?” You need to use Form 1040X for this purpose. But remember that this cannot be filed online. You will need to do it on the papers. 
  • For US citizens who live abroad, 17th June, 2013 is the last date for paying any taxes that are due, and filing individual tax returns. If you need more time, you can request an additional extension period of four months by using Form 4868. 
  • If you have a total sum of $10,000 in any foreign bank account, you will have to file a TD F 90-22.1 report. 30th June, 2013 is the deadline for filing this. 16th September, 2013 is an important date in terms of filing your tax return in the year of 2013 as this is the final deadline for filing corporate tax returns (only if you had requested an extension). You can use Form 1120A, 1120 and 1120S for this purpose. 


 So, keep these facts in mind to ensure that you file your tax returns on time. If you find it too tough to handle on your own, you can always hire New York tax help to deal with the tax issues.