I recently attended a seminar on estate planning. The attorney presenting the class provided a nicely summarized list of important information that everyone should have prepared prior to their death. She called this list a “FROG File” (For Your Own Good).

The Internal Revenue Service allowed an estimated $13.3 billion to $15.6 billion to be paid in improper claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit last fiscal year, or about 22 to 26 percent of all EITC payments, according to a new government report found the IRS continuing to be noncompliant with a 2010 law that sought to limit improper payments.

The Internal Revenue Service has adopted a "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" that it said would become a cornerstone document to provide the nation's taxpayers with a better understanding of their rights.

The scariest financial risk people face in life is running out of money at an old age. I’m 83 and I’m speaking from personal experience. After a long career as a newspaper editor, I retired in 1991 at the age of 60, with my wife, who is 14 years younger and retired in 2004. I’ve learned about financial matters the hard way, and I ghost-write articles like this one to earn some extra income.

The Internal Revenue Service has released the spring 2014 edition of its quarterly Statistics of Income Bulletin, with statistics up through 2011 indicating there are still people who earn over $200,000 a year who pay no federal income taxes, although the number of them has been decreasing.

There is more to the federal income tax system than just a single calculation. Upper-income taxpayers---especially those with investment income---must cope with six layers of taxation: (1) ordinary income tax; (2) capital gains and losses; (3) the alternative minimum tax; (4) the net investment income tax; (5) the additional Medicare tax; and (6) a reduction of itemized deductions and personal exemptions.