I just got my 2007 taxes back from the accountant. It’s bad. It’s really bad.

All in all, my 2007 tax obligation, including preparation fees, comes to just under $5,000 (of that the preparation costs were only $800 including the oil companies preparation costs).

I talked with the accountant last week, and after digging up my file, he told me the bottom line. After I scooped my jaw up off the floor, my next statement went something like this: “well, um, is there any way to lower that number?”.

After receiving my tax packet in the mail, it turns out there was a way to lower the number: by a …

I made a valiant effort to organize my taxes today. I sat down and pulled out the file folder marked “2007 Taxes” that seems to swell towards the end of the year, on the verge of bursting open and creating a mess of receipts, forms, letters and other documents whose sole purpose in life is to create a lot of organizational hassle for me, and to keep me in the good graces with the IRS.

In expanding on last years method to organize my taxes as best I can before heading to my CPA, I pulled out three yellow letter-sized envelopes. Personal tax information will go in one, rental …

Today Provident Energy (PVX: chart, web, Y!) announced that the February cash distribution will remain at $0.12 USD per share payable on March 14th.

In addition, they announced the characterization of dividends for 2007 distributions as 97.58 percent qualified dividend and 2.42 percent tax deferred return of capital. The tax deferred portion is treated as an adjustment to the cost base of the shares.

This characterization is the last piece of information I need to finish up organizing my 2007 tax information.

It’s good to see the return of capital is so low. Fundamentally it means that the company has been able …

Congress finally got an economic stimulation bill passed today that will supposedly prop up the economy by shelling out cash to tax payers as a tax “rebate”.

Over 130 million households will get tax rebate checks starting this spring progressing through the summer. The Senate tacked on additional rebates to President Bush’s original tax plan, adding 20 million senior citizens and 250,000 disabled veterans to the package.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the Internal Revenue Service will get to work immediately, but it will take two to four months for the rebate checks to arrive. Of course, they want to process your …

While I was out of town visiting relatives for Christmas, President Bush signed a bill freezing the alternative minimum tax (AMT) for one year.

This will provide relief to more than 20 million taxpayers that would have faced the AMT this year alone! Last year 4 million paid the AMT, and this year it was projected that 25 million people would be held to the fire. To put it in the most basic terms, the AMT would cost you an extra $2,000 if you were subjected to it. Yeah, that would’ve stung a bit.

Evidently, the bill was passed by Congress just before the holiday recess, and …

I got a letter in the mail from the small-town accounting firm I used last year to do my taxes. I decided to use this firm after a local CPA raked me over the coals for $1300 to prepare my taxes. The small-town firm only charged half as much.

According to the letter, my CPA, who was fluent in oil and gas taxes, unexpectedly had a massive heart attack and died. It could not have happened to a nicer guy. He was a very laid back, no frills, get it done efficiently, and oh, by the way, how is …

Now that your taxes have been filed, there are probably more than a few of you that went head to head with the Alternative Minimum Tax, or as the financial’s like to call it, the AMT.

For those still unfamiliar with the AMT, just wait. That next pay raise may throw you into a head to head stand off with Uncle Sam’s dirty little tax secret.

The alternative minimum tax is really a loop hole that was design to end all loop holes. Mathematically speaking, it’s a tax calculation that adds certain tax preference items back into adjusted gross income, or AGI. If AMT is higher than the regular tax liability for the year, the regular tax and the amount by which the AMT exceeds the regular tax are paid.

April 17th is nearly upon us, and if you haven’t started on your taxes, you might think about it.

While you scramble to organize your W-2’s, receipts and 1099’s, keep these benefits in mind:

Telephone Excise Tax Refund: This is a one time refund of a long distance excise tax available on your 2006 returns. It applies to charges billed from March 2003 through July 2006 from your phone company. While the government offers a standard refund amount of $30 to $60, you can also calculate the actual tax paid, and get that money back. For me, it wasn’t worth the hassle of sorting through all my phone bills. Businesses …

Yesterday I received the yearly home valuation from the county.  Basically, they come up with an “appraisal” of your homes value as a tax basis for property taxes.

Home valuations from my county very closely match the actual market value of the homes, which is nice, until you have to pay your property taxes, at which point the value of your house is too high.  (The only time you want the value of your house to go up is when you want to sell.  Kind of cynical, isn’t it?)

This years valuation came in at $207,000 which is an increase of about 4.1% over last year, but down by about 0.15% compared to the increase the …

It has come to my attention that my in-laws have some additional Form 1099’s that have not been included on this years taxes.  The bummer of it all is that… our taxes have already been filed.  Hence, the problem.

While the total dividend from my wife’s Disney stock amounts to a total of $4.95 for the entire year, it is still being reported to the IRS as income, thus I should too.  While it will take the IRS quite a while to figure out I haven’t included this on my return, they will come asking for their money, eventually.  And I’m sure they’ll kindly request interest on that whopping …