1) Don't panic. The returns are due on April 17th this year. This is due to April 15th falling on the weekend and April 16th being a holiday in Washington DC. If you can't get your return completed and filed on time, file an extension. The federal form is 4868 and the Connecticut form is CT-1040-EXT. This will allow you until October 15th to file. The extension however only extends the time to file, it does not extend the time to pay. Any tax due needs to be paid with the filing of the extension.

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Congress recently passed and the President signed the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011. This act temporarily extends the two percentage point payroll tax cut for employees by continuing the reduction of their Social Security tax withholding rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent of wages paid through February 29, 2012. more…

Here are 4 ways to Help Your CPA and Reduce Your Taxes:

1) Have a Year End Planning Meeting with Your CPA

This meeting can be in person or over the phone, it really doesn't matter.  The only thing that matters is that it happens.  Most individual income taxpayers are on the cash basis.  This means, with some limited exceptions, for a taxpayer to take advantage of a tax strategy, it needs to happen in that tax year. This is where most of the heavy lifting is done, with the tax planning.    more…

Taxpayers must pay their taxes "as they go."  For many taxpayers, their income taxes are withheld from their paychecks.  For taxpayers that don't have any withholding, they will need to make estimated tax payments. more…

The State of Connecticut recently increased the state income tax rates.  Oh, and they made them retroactive to the beginning of 2011.  Don't you Connecticut income taxpayers just love this? more…