NEW YORK (Reuters) – It goes without saying that you should file your tax returns each year and pay what you owe. But if you mess up, there are ways to move beyond the problem.

Except in cases of tax fraud, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service will generally work with taxpayers to get them back into the system. You can often negotiate a payment plan, and if you are truly strapped, you may be able to cut a deal on how much you must pay. But first you must fess up to the problem.

NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) – It goes without saying that you
should file your tax returns each year and pay what you owe. But
if you mess up, there are ways to move beyond the problem.

Except in cases of tax fraud, the U.S. Internal Revenue
Service will generally work with taxpayers to get them back into
the system. You can often negotiate a payment plan, and if you
are truly strapped, you may be able to cut a deal on how much
you must pay. But first you must fess up to the problem.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tax-advantaged 529 college-savings plans have been a huge help for many students and their families as the costs of higher education have soared. But if you’re applying for financial aid (and who isn’t?) you need to know how these accounts will affect your bottom line.

The basic problem: Not all 529 accounts are treated equally, so two different students with the same basic profile could get different aid offers, based on who actually owns their 529 plan.

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) – There are many reasons to
hate tax time, but here’s one of the worst: You discover while
doing your taxes that you owe far more than you can possibly
come up with by April 15.

Cry, scream, punch the wall if you have to. But then deal
with the problem head on.

NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) – Tax day this year falls on a
Monday, making it all the more enticing for procrastinators to
attempt to cram in all their accounting on the weekend prior. If
this is your plan, you have a little bit of an excuse: The tax
season started slowly as the Internal Revenue Service reworked
many forms, as required by the year-end tax changes. But that
doesn’t make it any less painful now.

If you’re among the procrastinators, here are eight
last-minute things to consider:

NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) – Americans claim more than $1
trillion worth of deductions at tax time. And whether you think
the tax code should have more write-offs or fewer loopholes, you
might as well get your piece of that pie while it’s on the
table.

That means grabbing every available deduction, even the ones
you may not have thought about. Here’s a helpful starter list
for your 2012 returns.

NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) – If you have kids in college,
you already know that higher education isn’t getting any cheaper
- some private schools will now set you back more than $60,000 a
year.

You may need a high-priced education just to figure out how
to write it off. The federal government offers a variety of tax
breaks to lessen your burden. But they are complicated, limited
and overlapping, and it is not always easy to figure out how to
maximize them.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – After years of changes and political arm-twisting, the federal estate tax rules became clear and stable with the year-end fiscal cliff deal. They are now set permanently into the tax code – at least until the tax code changes again.

The amount an individual can exclude from estate taxes (including gifts given during his or her lifetime) is an extremely generous $5.25 million per person for 2013.

NEW YORK, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The payroll tax cut quietly
expired at the end of 2012, and for many American families who
are struggling to keep pace in a tight economy, that has raised
questions of what to do.

The tax, which covers Social Security, is deducted from your
paycheck automatically. It is based on your income, up to a
maximum of $113,700 for 2013. Income above that amount is exempt
from Social Security taxes. A tax cut to stimulate the economy
shaved 2 percentage points off the payroll tax, but now it has
been restored to 6.2 percent.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Andrew Winfield applied to become a U.S. citizen in 2011, he realized he owed taxes on accounts he had left behind in his native England.

So he paid what he believed he owed — $2,800 in back taxes, plus the estimated interest and penalties – and entered the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s overseas disclosure program.