W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…

The Rosetta Stone, unearthed by Napoleon, was perhaps the most seminal Egyptian archaeological discovery to date. The Stone had duplicated text in 3 different languages: Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic (Egyptian script) and Greek. Using the Greek translation, we were able to decipher the Egyptian script and subsequently the hieroglyphs. However, the question remains: Egyptians had paper, called papyrus, so why was the writing carved in stone? Furthermore, why three languages? And why Greek?

The Stone has been in existence before 3000 B.C. The Rosetta Stone was carved around 200 B.C. while Ptolemy V was in power (an emperor of Greek origin). So what happened to the Pharaohs? At this point in history, Egypt had been conquered in 700 B.C. by the Assyrians, after that the Persians, and eventually the Greeks in 330 B.C. After reigning 2000+ years, Egypt was in decline.

The Ptolemy’s were for the most part decent rulers, but in 200BC, during which the Rosetta Stone was etched, Egypt had just ended a 10-year long civil war. The internal struggle broke out over exorbitant and oppressive taxation put in place by tough Greek tax collectors. When the war ended there was continuous unrest. Ptolemy V put into a effect a Proclamation of Peace which gave general amnesty for any rebel and tax debtors, reigned in taxation practices, stopped forced draft into the navy, and restored tax exemption to the priests, temples, and their crops and lands, as it had been in the reign of the ancient pharaohs. If you’re feeling the pressure with today’s taxes, call a Cary NC Accountant for all your tax-related needs!

This was a superb edge and financial ease for the priests and temples and they wanted to make sure first everyone knew it and, secondly, did not want it to be thrown away again at a point in the future.

As a result, “Rosetta Stones” were created and placed in front of each temple throughout Egypt. The Rosetta stones acted as warnings to all that tax exemption had been given to the priesthood and this temple and was a “Do Not Enter” proclamation to curtail the lawlessness of the king’s tax men. Go here if you want help with modern-day Tax Preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll in Cary NC.

All of this still begs the question: why carved into stone? The answer is because the priesthood wanted to make sure it would not disappear or able to be easily destroyed. Another question was why was it written in three languages? The Stone was carved in 3 languages because all could see and heed the command the priesthood wanted to send to everyone of Egypt. It was written in Greek to be especially clear to the king’s tax men that they couldn’t even go inside the gates of the temple.

So, the most important Egyptian archaeological discovery ever, the Rosetta Stone translated the weird language of the Egyptians, enabled us to discover the key to hieroglyphic writing and thereby the secret to unlocking the mystery of ancient Egypt and the understanding of the Egyptian way of life for 3000 years was, in truth, a tax document.

Keep an eye out for W. Marc Gilfillan’s next chapter in his History of Taxes series: Taxes and The Colussus of Rhodes.

http://www.marccpa.com/

I am the kind of person who does not want to rely on anyone. Probably the reason behind this is that I grew up in an orphanage and was trained to be independent at an early age. As far as I can remember, I only relied on myself for every decision I made including filing my income tax return. I have been a taxpayer for almost two decades now and I know that I have not failed to do my duty as a citizen of this country. After I got married, however, I started to be dependent on my husband and he helped me out with my company. Since he is an accountant, he was in charge of our finances and filing of income tax. Preffered Tax Relief

After two years of being married, my husband and I had a falling out. He was a philanderer and have become irresponsible. He left me when I was pregnant and the company I started back when I was single was barely afloat. I knew that I can face up with the challenge and I can recover the losses while taking care of my baby girl. For several months it was a living hell. But fortunately my divorce papers arrived and everything went back to normal or so I thought. Tax Advice

Just a few months after being divorced, I received a call from the Internal Revenue Service. They told me of the tax debt my ex-husband and I incurred during the years when he was the one in charge of filing our taxes. I was so devastated when I heard this because I am sure I did not know about his activities at that time as I was in the hospital for problems during my pregnancy. During the first trimester of my pregnancy, I was required to stay in bed to ensure that there will be no complications. I didn’t know what to do with the IRS but I know that this has to be resolved soon otherwise the problem would just worsen.

I was tired of crying and I know it wouldn’t me much either so I sought help from my friends if they know someone or a company that can help me out with my problem. I turned to the internet to seek solutions to my problem. It’s a good thing that I stumbled upon Preferred Tax Relief. I was informed by the tax experts of the company that I could seek innocent spouse tax relief from the IRS. In truth, I wasn’t comfortable on asking people for help especially after my shortcomings with my ex-husband but I know that Preferred Tax Relief will be a great help in negotiating with the IRS in regards to my tax issues. As a matter of fact, after a month, the company assisted me with the tax help I needed most. Thanks to Preferred Tax Relief, my tax woes are behind me now. Tax Relief

real estate taxes Interrelated Fact

If your major interest is information related to real estate taxes or any other such as ask tax questions, h&r block, corporate taxes or tax services, this article can prove useful.

In the event someone who was not your blood relative or spouse leaves you money, you will have to pay considerably higher amounts of taxes. The exact amount will be determined by the guidelines in your state.

For Americans working overseas, nearly $90,000 a year of their earned income is tax free. This totally legal tax break is called the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. Here is a look at this tax break.

For the employees who are married and are below 65 years old and who are filing jointly, all the money should be $17,900 if both spouses are below 65 years old.

If this article still doesn’t answer your specific real estate taxes quest, then don’t forget that you can conduct more search on any of the major search engines like Search. To get specific real estate taxes information.

Here is the list of home improvement items that qualify:- Windows and Doors, Insulation, Roofs (Metal and Asphalt), HVAC, Water Heaters (non-solar), Biomass Stoves.

You also have a choice when it comes to claiming equipment. You can write off the total cost in the same year or you can spread it out over several years and write it off as depreciation.

The ending date for this time period is the date of the purchase of the new home. If the buyer is married, then neither spouse can have had ownership in a principal residence.

It might interest you to know that lots of folks searching for real estate taxes also got information related to other federal income tax refund, money, and even investment taxes here with ease.

In order for the Internal Revenue Service to abide by the law, they have the duty to initially present their levy target (that would be you) what is known as a Final Notice of Intent to Levy made according to 26 USC § 6330(a)(1) which provides in relevant part that no levy may be made on any assets or right to property of anyone except the Secretary has advised such person in writing of their entitlement to a hearing under this section prior to such levy being made.

26 USC § 6330(a)(2) provides that the notice required under paragraph (1) shall be handed to you personally; left at the residence or usual place of business of such person; or sent by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, to such person’s last known address; not less than thirty days before the day of the first levy.

When you are given the notice, it is indispensable that your application for the hearing be made timely. 26 USC § 6330(a)(3) specifies that the information included with the notice the IRS sends you shall include notice to you of the right to request a hearing during the 30-day period under paragraph (2).

When you accept the aforementioned notice and read it you will see that 26 U.S.C. § 6330(e) provides that as soon as a Collection Due Process Hearing is timely requested “the levy actions which are the subject of the requested hearing…shall be suspended for the period during which such hearing, and appeals therein, are pending…” Requesting a CDP hearing is the most efficient way to bring to a halt an IRS levy on a bank account or paycheck since suspension of collection activity upon such request is mandated by the law.

The IRS has a tendency to try and base your entire hearing upon what you put in that request. It is for this reason I recommend very strongly using the addendums that are part of my IRS Terminator package. I explain the importance of the addendums in the videos at www.irsterminator.com.

I have seen the IRS fax a release of levy to an employer in as little as two days subsequent to the CDP hearing request being sent. There is a little trick to getting such fast action which is explained in the IRS Terminator package. This makes it possible for the employee to never miss a full paycheck and for the bank depositor to retrieve their funds.

It is not difficult to block an Internal Revenue Service levy by timely demanding a CDP hearing as provided in 26 U.S.C. § 6330(b)(1). However, if right steps are not taken to  be victorious in the hearing, eventually the IRS will get around to holding the hearing and in all likelihood hold against you and move forward on the levy. The IRS Terminator package is planned to give you the absolute best chance to succeed in your hearing.

It has happened frequently that I have been told situations in which the IRS sent a levy to an work place or bank  ahead of sending the Final Notice of Intent to Levy. It is still possible to demand a CDPH hearing in a situation such as this and get the collection activity put on hold before the IRS takes your paycheck or funds. There are forms in the www.irsterminator.com package whose aim is to competently request a Collection Due Process Hearing in a situation where the statutorily required notice has not been sent.

There are almost certainly not many feelings worse than the one that comes upon you when your bank or work place give you notice that they have been mailed a Notice of Levy by the Federal tax authorities ordering them to keep most all of your next paycheck or deliver the funds in your bank account to them. My IRS Terminator package supplies you with the paperwork you ought to have to render the situation as meaningless as possible and ultimately overcome.

Follow me on Twitter.com/legalbear See you there.

Also called a Starker Exchange Trust, a 1031 exchange is generally used by someone who wants to sell an investment property that they own, yet do not want to pay any taxes. A 1031 will allow the seller of the investment property to defer the taxes as long as they purchase another property which costs the same, or more, than the property they are selling. There are some very strict regulations for using this exchange. If you happen to write about the rules or the deadlines in a blog, then be sure everything is on the up and up or it will invalidate the 1031.

If you own an investment property or a company, then you may be able to benefit from this trade and quite likely save quite a bit of money, simply by exchanging assets rather than than selling them. A “like kind” exchange under the IRS 1031 Exchange is applicable to personal property and real estate and might save you both state and federal taxes, anywhere from approximately 15 to 36% per dollar gained, according to your individual state’s tax rate.

To facilitate your 1031 exchange and to satisfy the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service you will need to use a Qualified Intermediary (QI), as this also helps to ensure that all of the rules for the exchange have been met and that it will be approved. Their role is on behalf of the taxpayer by buying and selling the assets, as well as holding the funds for them.

When the sale of your property has gone through, you’ll have 45 days to declare the potential replacement property or business that’s the 1031 like kind exchange of the property that was sold. The good news is, all real estate is considered “like kind” so you can trade an office building for land, and so forth. After it’s approved, you will need to obtain your like kind property within 180 days from the date you sold your other property. So as to put off 100% of the taxes from the sale, you need to meet two stipulations with the new property; first you need to buy a property that’s of equal or greater value than your old property. Then you will need to use 100% of the net proceeds from the original property to obtain the new property.

In order to be in compliance with the 1031 rules, the last step is to be sure that the person who sells the property is the same one who buys the property. If the real estate that you sold was titled to you individually, then the new property will have to be titled to you as well. In order to be sure the 1031 exchange is approved the same holds true if the original property was titled to a corporation or partnership; the new property has to be titled to the same corporation or partnership.

The 1031 exchange is normally used by an individual who wants to sell one of their investment properties but does not wish to pay taxes on the transaction. The 1031 tax deferred exchange will allow the seller to defer the taxes if they purchase another property that costs the same.