Well, that was easy… Not long ago I noted that we were appealing our property tax re-assessment. For those that don’t recall, we renovated last fall and were slapped with an increase that placed our home’s assessed value well beyond fair market value. [more]

Over the past week or so I’ve received a substantial number of comments from people who should’ve received their tax stimulus rebate payment but haven’t gotten it yet. If you’re one of these people, here’s some info that I dug up on the IRS website… [more]

If you’re expecting a tax stimulus rebate payment, your wait just got shorter. While the original tax rebate payment schedule called for payments to begin on May 2nd, a new computer system has allowed the feds to accelerate the schedule. Payments are now supposed to commence this coming Monday, four days early. [more]

A reader named Elizabeth recently left a comment about Kroger’s tax rebate promotion.

For those of you that are unaware, Kroger (KR) is a large grocery chain based out of Cincinnati, with nearly 2,500 stores spread across multiple states.

Starting May 2nd, Kroger will allow customers to exchange their “economic stimulus” rebate check for store gift cards with an extra 10% added to it. So your $300 rebate is good for $330 at Kroger, $600 = $660, and so on. But wait! It gets better… [more]

As many of you know, we renovated our house this past fall. The work that we had done included an addition, replacement of our deck, conversion of our old laundry room into a powder room, and the construction of a small outbuilding.

Over this past weekend, our property tax re-assessment showed up in our mailbox. While I was expecting to see an increase, I wasn’t prepared for what I saw when I opened the envelope, especially given current market conditions. [more]

With Tax Day officially behind us, I thought I’d put together a list of things to do with your tax refund. Remember… Your tax refund isn’t some sort of magical windfall — it’s your money, and you worked hard for it. Do something smart with it. [more]

When I wrote the other about how to file an income tax extension, it was more than an academic exercise. I was actually thinking about the possibility of filing an extension ourselves. I actually figured everything out quite awhile ago, but our return ended up being a bit more complex than expected in that we ended up getting snagged by the AMT. [more]

This is just a quick reminder to all of you who are filing a hard copy of your taxes…

Don’t forget forget to sign your tax return!

According to the IRS, your return is not considered to be a valid tax return unless you sign it. And if you’re filing jointly, your spouse will need to sign it, as well.

I’ve written previously about how to request an income tax filing extension, and at the tail end of that article I mentioned that requesting an income tax filing extension will likely delay your tax rebate check. Here are some additional details…

On-time filers should begin receiving their tax rebate payments (via mail or direct deposit) in May. While all direct deposits are scheduled to be completed by the end of May, and all checks are scheduled to be sent by July, the IRS has indicated that rebate payments will be actually be sent through December 31, 2008 “to accommodate taxpayers who file tax returns later in the year.”

Given that the extended filing deadline is October 15, 2008, it appears that there will be up to a two month lag in getting the late payments sent. And if you end up extending beyond the normal drop dead date of October 15, 2008 it’s unclear (at least to me) what will happen to your rebate payment.

The bottom line here is that, if you qualify for a tax rebate check, you might want to think twice about requesting a filing extension.

With Tax Day less than a week away, I thought I’d take a bit of time to talk about how to request an income tax filing extension. In case you’re now aware, everyone is entitled to an automatic, six month filing extension — all you have to do is ask. [more]