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Problem Resolving An Issue With The IRS? The Taxpayer Advocate Service: Helping You Resolve Tax Problems
The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS that helps taxpayers who are experiencing unresolved federal tax problems. Here are 10 things every taxpayer should know about TAS:
1. The Taxpayer Advocate Service is your voice at the IRS.
2. TAS assistance is free and tailored to meet your needs.
3. You may be eligible for TAS help if you’ve tried to resolve your tax problem through normal IRS channels and have gotten nowhere, or if you are facing (or your business is facing) an immediate action from the IRS that will adversely affect you.
4. The worst thing you can do is nothing at all!
5. TAS helps individual and business taxpayers whose tax problems are causing financial difficulty, which could include the cost of hiring professional representation, such as a tax attorney.
6. If you qualify for TAS help, you’ll be assigned one advocate who will do everything possible to get your problem resolved.
7. There is at least one local Taxpayer Advocate office in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. You can obtain the number of your local Taxpayer Advocate from your local phone book, in Pub. 1546, Taxpayer Advocate Service – Your Voice at the IRS and on the IRS website at IRS.gov/advocate. You can also call TAS toll-free at 1-877-777-4778.
8. As a taxpayer, you have rights that the IRS must abide by when working with you. Our tax toolkit website at http://www.TaxpayerAdvocate.irs.gov can help you understand these rights.
9. TAS also handles tax problems that may have a broad impact on more than just one taxpayer. You can report these “systemic” issues to TAS through the Systemic Advocacy Management System at IRS.gov/advocate.
10. You can get updates on hot tax topics by visiting the TAS YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/TASNTA and the TAS Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/YourVoiceAtIRS, or by following TAS tweets at http://www.twitter.com/YourVoiceatIRS.
IRS Presents – How Does The Gain On The Sale Of Your Main Home Work
If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude all or part of that gain from your income.
Here are 10 tips to keep in mind when selling your home.
1. In general, you are eligible to exclude the gain from income if you have owned and used your home as your main home for two years out of the five years prior to the date of its sale.
2. If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income ($500,000 on a joint return in most cases).
3. You are not eligible for the full exclusion if you excluded the gain from the sale of another home during the two-year period prior to the sale of your home.
4. If you can exclude all of the gain, you do not need to report the sale of your home on your tax return.
5. If you have a gain that cannot be excluded, it is taxable. You must report it on Form 1040, Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses.
6. You cannot deduct a loss from the sale of your main home.
7. Worksheets are included in Publication 523, Selling Your Home, to help you figure the adjusted basis of the home you sold, the gain (or loss) on the sale, and the gain that you can exclude. Most tax software can also help with
this calculation.
8. If you have more than one home, you can exclude a gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is ordinarily the one you live in most of the time.
9. Special rules may apply when you sell a home for which you received the first-time homebuyer credit. See Publication 523, Selling Your Home, for details.
10. When you move, be sure to update your address with the IRS and the U.S. Postal Service to ensure you receive mail from the IRS. Use Form 8822, Change of Address, to notify the IRS of your address change.
For more information about selling your home, see IRS Publication 523,Selling Your Home.
Links:
Publication 523, Selling Your Home (PDF)
Form 8822, Change of Address (PDF)
Tax Topic 701 – Sale of Your Home
Real Estate Tax Tips – Sale of Residence
Stacie's Tax Stuff 