Note: Although I try to keep GRS a politics-free zone, today’s topic is inherently political. I’ve stayed as neutral as possible in the article, but I know that there’ll be some political discussion in the comments. Please keep conversation civil, as always.
Because I was frustrated with my own ignorance about the U.S. federal budget and our tax system, I recently spent twelve hours researching a variety of tax topics. From my research came two articles: last week’s short guide to the federal budget and today’s post, which answers some of my personal questions about taxes.
Note: Though I’ve done my best to be accurate, I’m sure there are errors in this post. As they’re caught, I’ll make corrections.

Last week, we tried to take a few small steps toward understanding the federal budget. We looked at where the U.S. government spends its money. But where does it actually find the cash to spend?
Of the $2.333 Trillion dollars [...]

Note: Although I try to keep GRS a politics-free zone, today’s topic is inherently political. I’ve stayed as neutral as possible in the article, but I know that there’ll be some political discussion in the comments. Please keep conversation civil, as always.
Recently at The Simple Dollar, Trent posed the question, “How much do taxes matter to you?” As might be expected, his readers responded with passionate comments from both sides of the political spectrum. The discussion frustrated me, though. There’s just too much misinformation, and people offer their opinions as if they were facts.
I’m as guilty as anyone else.
Because my own education on this subject is weak, and because I want GRS readers to be informed, I spent twelve hours last week researching a variety of tax topics. From this research, I’ve written two articles: this one about the U.S. budget, and a second part about taxes, which I’ll publish next week.
These posts [...]

Yesterday I hosted a guest article about the mortagage-interest tax deduction. As part of his argument that this tax break should not be used to justify buying a house, CJ from Wise Money Matters looked at the savings by tax brackets. What CJ did not consider (and what escaped my notice, and even that of my accountant) was the concept of marginal tax rates.
Although I was mortified to have let such a blatant error pass through editing, I decided to turn this mistake into a positive experience. I spent some time reading about marginal tax rates, and today I’m going to share what I learned.
Marginal tax rates
Let’s start by looking at the 2009 U.S. federal income tax brackets for ordinary income. (These are the rates we’ll use when filing our tax returns in 2010.) For the sake of simplicity, we’ll only examine the rates for single filers and for those who are married filing jointly. [...]

This is a guest post from CJ at WiseMoneyMatters.com. This post represents CJ’s viewpoints, which are not necessarily my viewpoints. (Although I, too, hope to pay off my mortgage early.)
Note: This is embarrassing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a post with an error like this slip by me before. I apologize. I’ve removed the offending section, not out of any attempt at revisionism, but out of interest in accuracy. Please let me know if the piece is still mathematically unsound. (And a sincere “thank you” to those who caught the error!)

The other day, I was telling my wife’s grandmother that we had sold our house. We are downsizing in order to eliminate our mortgage more quickly. It looks like we will have our mortgage completely paid off in three to five years, depending on when kids enter the scene. She gave me a speech about how our house is one of the only tax [...]

After yesterday’s post about taxes, author Fred Daily wrote to point out a free tax resource that he’s posted online. Daily is a tax attorney, and a long-time subscriber to this site. He’s also the author of Stand Up to the IRS and Tax Savvy for Small Business.
In an interesting move, Daily has placed the entire content of Stand Up to the IRS online for free. This isn’t a general-interest tax publication — it’s not going to help you find tax deductions or tell you when you should file — but it’s an amazing resource if you find yourself in a disagreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
Chapters include:

Inside the IRS: What you need to know about IRS operations
Winning your audit
When you owe the IRS: Keeping the tax collector at bay
The taxpayer advocate: A friend at the IRS
Small business/self-employed: When IRS trouble comes

Here’s the entire table of contents. The book concludes with the 25 most frequently [...]

Tax season is in full swing. Readers are peppering me with questions, and marketers are forwarding promotional material for their products. This seems like a good time to meld the two opposing forces into a single post!
Tips for preparing your tax return
First up, Roni Deutch, CEO of the nation’s largest tax-resolution law firm, sent me a copy of her new book, The Tax Lady’s Guide to Beating the IRS and Saving Big Bucks on Your Taxes. She also passed along her top 10 tips for preparing your tax return:

Clean, correct, current, and complete. Use good recordkeeping habits and a computer to complete your return and you will have gotten yourself off to a fabulous start.
The right forms in the right order. Using the right forms and putting them in sequential order makes it easier for the IRS to quickly read and review — which is what you want!
Use the correct filing status. The wrong tax [...]