Wondering Where Your Tax Refund Might Be? Check Your Student Loan Debt
By now millions of taxpayers have already filed their returns and have received their refunds. Still, there are others who are waiting for that check to show up in their account. For some, that wait can be very difficult and even cause a little anxiety. In most cases, there’s no need to worry. Just give it enough time and the IRS should be sending your refund soon. On the other hand, for some people who owe money on their student loans, the news might not be so good.
Several taxpayers are discovering this year that the refund they were expecting to get has instead been allocated for something else: to pay off their student loan debt. While this may come as a surprise to many, the law allows the Department of Education to take your tax refund if your student loan debt is in default. They can do this by using the Treasury Offset Program, which allows federal payments you would have otherwise received, to be taken and used to pay off debts to federal agencies.
However, according to the law, anyone who has a loan in default should first receive a warning that his or her tax refund could be used for paying down that student loan debt. In addition, if you do lose part or all of your refund, you can contest the decision. However, in order to win your protest essentially you have to prove that your student loan is not actually in default.
Tax Record Retention Guide
Storing tax records: How long is long enough? Tax Record Retention April 15 has come and gone and another year of tax forms and shoeboxes full of receipts is behind us. But what should be done with those documents after your check or refund request is in the mail? Federal law requires you to maintain…
3 Reasons Why Owning a Commercial Property May Make You More Money in Real Estate Investment
Making a Commercial Property Investment If you ever have been a landlord for residential property, I am sure that you get complaints from tenants about leaking roofs in the middle of the night. But what keeps most people back from investing in commercial real estate is the fear of the unknown since not many of…
Sec 1045: Small Business Stock Rollover of Gain
The Beauty of Section 1045 Enacted as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (effective for sales after August 5, 1997), a taxpayer other than a corporation may elect to roll over capital gains from the sale of qualified small business stock held for more than six months if another small business stock is…
Common Investment Mistakes
Courtesy of Paul Ray Andrus, LUTCF, ChFC There is a lesson to be learned from the recent $2 billion-plus loss by a sophisticated trading unit of JPMorgan Chase. Even “expert” traders make mistakes. You shouldn’t expect every investment decision you make to be perfect. And when you are wrong, it’s best to recognize it and…