But, today is Monday. The Super Bowl is over. The work week is beginning. And, we’ve all got holiday bills, broken-down cars, and other difficulties to take care of. A Federal tax refund check would be pretty handy right now.

What if your employer has not sent your W-2? What do you do?

What if they sent it, but to the wrong address?

How long do you wait before doing anything at all? When do you call the IRS? And where do you call?

Here are a few quick answers that I hope can at least give you an idea about where to start. I’ve taken these answers straight from the horse’s mouth at IRS.gov. I highly suggest you make that site your first stop for any questions about filing, any forms, etc. It is actually very well-laid-out and helpful. And, it beats trying to call the IRS hotline by a long shot, especially this time of year.

Please note the February 14 date in Step 2 below. Before that date, only call the IRS if you know that your employer is not going to have your W-2s sent. Before that date, the IRS will simply tell you to wait.

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Employers have until January 31, 2011 to send you a 2010 Form W-2 earnings statement.
If you haven’t received your W-2, follow these four steps:

1. Contact your employer If you have not received your W-2, contact your employer to inquire if and when the W-2 was mailed. If it was mailed, it may have been returned to the employer because of an incorrect or incomplete address. After contacting the employer, allow a reasonable amount of time for them to resend or to issue the W-2.

2. Contact the IRS If you do not receive your W-2 by February 14th, contact the IRS for assistance at 800-829-1040. When you call, you must provide your name, address, city and state, including zip code, Social Security number, phone number and have the following information:
• Employer’s name, address, city and state, including zip code and phone number
• Dates of employment
• An estimate of the wages you earned, the federal income tax withheld, and when you worked for that employer during 2010. The estimate should be based on year-to-date information from your final pay stub or leave-and-earnings statement, if possible.

3. File your return You still must file your tax return or request an extension to file April 18, 2011, even if you do not receive your Form W-2. If you have not received your Form W-2 by the due date, and have completed steps 1 and 2, you may use Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Attach Form 4852 to the return, estimating income and withholding taxes as accurately as possible. There may be a delay in any refund due while the information is verified.

4. File a Form 1040X On occasion, you may receive your missing W-2 after you filed your return using Form 4852, and the information may be different from what you reported on your return. If this happens, you must amend your return by filing a Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.

Form 4852, Form 1040X, and instructions are available at http://www.irs.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

Legitimate tax return prep offices and other businesses offers “refund anticipation loans”, whereby you have your refund sent to their bank account and they give you most of it in advance in cash. But, these kinds of services do place restrictions on who they will offer loans to, based on any tax offsets due, filing status changes from prior years, etc.

But, since these services are highly-advertised and have become commonplace, people are falling prey to scams that offer such services. These scams are blended with high-tech methods of phishing and information collection that go further than tax season. One scam even asks for your mother’s maiden name, which is a common identifier when resetting or revealing other passwords.

Learn more about these scams, how to spot them, and how to report them.

A report from Bloomberg, citing “people with knowledge of the matter,” has come out saying that the IRS is auditing “how Google avoided federal income taxes by shifting profit into offshore subsidiaries.” The report says:

The agency is bringing more than typical scrutiny to how the company valued software rights and other intellectual property it licensed abroad, said the person, who requested anonymity because the audit isn’t public. The IRS has requested information from Google about its offshore deals after three acquisitions, including its $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, the person said. The transfer overseas of these kinds of rights has enabled Google to attribute earnings to foreign units that pay lower taxes, Bloomberg News reported a year ago.

This is certainly not the first we’ve heard of companies engaging in this kind of shifting of finances.

Google isn’t commenting beyond, “This is a routine inquiry,” and the IRS is prohibited by law to discuss specific taxpayers.

This news comes on the day that Google is set to reveal its third quarter financial results. The call is scheduled for 4:30 EST. Check back to WebProNews for coverage of that.

"This new smart phone app reflects our commitment to modernizing the agency and engaging taxpayers where they want when they want it," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

"As technology evolves and younger taxpayers get their information in new ways, we will keep innovating to make it easy for all taxpayers to access helpful information."

Apple users can download the free IRS2Go application by visiting the Apple App Store. Android users can visit the Android Marketplace to download app.

“This phone app is a first step for us," Shulman said. "We will look for additional ways to expand and refine our use of smartphones and other new technologies to help meet the needs of taxpayers."

People can check the status of their federal refund through the new phone app with a few basic pieces of information. First, they can enter a Social Security number, which is masked and encrypted for security purposes. Next, taxpayers pick the filing status they used on their tax return. Finally, taxpayers enter the amount of the refund they expect from their 2010 tax return.

For people who e-file, the refund function of the phone app will work within about 72 hours after taxpayers receive an e-mail acknowledgment saying the IRS received their tax return.

For people filing paper tax returns, longer processing times mean they will need to wait three to four weeks before they can check their refund status.

About 70 percent of the 142 million individual tax returns were filed electronically last year.

Original Article: By now, you’ve probably heard the news that Joseph Andrew Stack intentionally flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. He appeared to have left a rant at EmbeddedArt.com before he did it, but the site has since been taken offline, and replaced with the following message:

This website has been taken offline due to the sensitive nature of the events that transpired in Texas this morning and in compliance with a request from the FBI. To see an archived version of the original letter, please go here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack1.html. Please visit our forum if you wish to discuss anything related to this incident: Texas crash pilot left suicide note on Web site – embeddedart.com.

Regards,
T35 Hosting – www.T35.com

Stack has already had a Facebook Fan Group set up in his "honor" by people admiring what he has done. At the time of this writing, it already has over 160 fans. Some on the page are praising what he did, while others are calling him and his fans names. Social media at its finest.

On an interesting side note, Google doesn’t appear to be displaying its real-time search results for "Austin" or "Texas". I just find this slightly odd, being how it is one of the day’s biggest news stories. To be fair, the results do show up for queries like "IRS", "plane", and "crash". This shows another example of where the feature still has some room for improvement.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman recommends taxpayers consider e-file this year as the best option to file accurate tax returns and receive fast refunds. The e-file program includes new improvements to the Free File program that will allow nearly all taxpayers to e-file for free.

Doug Shulman
IRS Commissioner

"These are tough times, and e-file is the best way for people to get cash in their pocket quickly," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

"Filing electronically with direct deposit can get refunds to taxpayers in as few as 10 days. Combined with important changes in the Free File program, we believe e-file is a better option than ever before for the nation’s taxpayers."

The new Free File Fillable Tax Forms allows taxpayers to fill out and file their tax forms electronically, just as they would appear on paper. The option does not include an interview process like other Free File offerings. The IRS says the new service is for those who are comfortable with the tax law, know what forms they want to use and don’t need help completing their returns.

IRS e-file allows taxpayers to file their returns now and pay later if they owe taxes. It allows taxpayers to file both federal and most state returns at the same time.

The IRS e-file totaled nearly 90 million tax returns in 2008. Almost 58 percent of all returns were filed electronically and the average refund was $2,429.
 

The proposal is an effort to collect unreported income generated by online sales.

It would require online "brokers" to file income statements for all customers who use their sites and have 100 or more separate transactions that total $5,000 or more per year.

The information that online brokers would have to collect includes customer’s names, addresses and Social Security numbers or taxpayer identification numbers.

The proposal would go into effect on January 1, 2008.

The Center for Democracy and Technology says the IRS proposal is disturbing on many levels.

They point out that, "it calls for the collection, storage and transmission of large amounts of sensitive personal information at a time when Internet users are increasingly concerned about identity theft; and when public- and private-sector data breaches have become routine."

Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the CDT says that while the IRS only wants income statements from businesses that earn $5,000 from 100 transactions, most online sites will record personal information from everyone who uses their site.

The reason for that is the sites would be liable under the proposal.

The CDT raises the issue of what this proposal could do to ecommerce.

"Forcing businesses to collect SSNs could have a chilling effect on legitimate e-commerce if consumers balk at providing their SSNs for simple transactions — something most people are not accustomed to doing."

While no lawmaker has come out in support of the proposal, it is in the President’s 2008 budget and the fear is it could slip into a larger legislative package.

It would seem companies such as eBay and Amazon would lobby strongly against such a proposal, along with smaller sellers or anyone involved in ecommerce.

While collecting tax revenue is important there has to be a less invasive way of carrying out such a proposal.

“Intuit product users who were unable to file their returns through the company

More Americans Filing Taxes Online

According to the Conference Board and TNS dissipating online security concerns have led to more online filing. Just 43 percent of Internet users are "extremely" worried about security risks in filing their taxes online, a decrease from 52 percent in 2004.

Around two-thirds of taxpayers have filed their taxes electronically over the past three years, and half have done so for five years or more.

In 2006, 73 million people filed their taxes online and million filed from their home computers, according to the IRS.

This year 40 percent is expected to file their 2006 federal taxes online, an increase of 28 percent over three years ago. One of the major drivers for filing online is direct deposit of refunds.

"Whether using professional tax services or do-it-yourself software, electronic filing continues to grow year after year. And, by far, direct deposit is the preferred refund method," said Lynn Franco of the Conference Board.

"This year’s ability to split refunds among up to three accounts is yet another choice that should broaden the appeal of electronic filing."

The IRS offers a free online filing system that has had a decrease in use over the past three years because of a drop in the number of people who are eligible to use the system.

Close to 40 percent of consumers who will file online will use a professional tax service with women more likely then men to seek help.

 For consumers who do not file online most do not do their own taxes or they have anxiety about having their information on the Internet.

This years tax deadline is Tuesday April 17.

In the future, that could change. The San Francisco Chronicle noted the longing looks the federal government has cast at sites that aren’t considered brokers by law.

Change the definition, and it could mean a windfall for the government as more people receive those Form 1099 mailings that eBay and others would be required to send. It would put a burden on eBay to track its sellers and their sales when people earn $5,000 or more, or if they are part of more than 100 transactions.

An eBay spokesperson cited in the report said the company doesn’t fall into the broker definition as of now. EBay doesn’t take possession of the items sold through the site. Those transactions have the item ship from seller to buyer.

One segment of eBay’s Power Seller populace isn’t very concerned with the proposal of heightened attention for sellers:

David Yaskulka, marketing chairman for the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance, an industry group of more than 500 big eBay sellers, said it wouldn’t bother him if eBay reported sales information about its users to the IRS. In his experience, big sellers already pay their fair share.

“Every professional seller I’ve ever talked to pays their taxes and has no problem with anyone finding out about the level of business they’re doing,” Yaskulka said.

Formal discussions in Congress about the proposal and other tax issues should begin in a few short weeks. EBay sellers should keep an eye on this. If the definition of “broker” receives a little editing, they need to make sure their tax situations are in order.

If they don’t, the IRS will. They define that process as an “audit.” And federal auditors are not nearly as cuddly as the Beanie Babies many people sold on eBay, either.

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