Check out a list of 15 red flags that might result in an IRS audit

The IRS may look at your social media if you're being audited

While some people cheat on their taxes, others evade paying them altogether. This article details methods the Internal Revenue Service uses to catch these people in the act, such as scanning social media, computer data analysis, and whistleblowers.

The IRS already has much of the data it asks Americans to report when filing their taxes

Americans spend more than 7.9 billion hours per year doing their taxes: It's notoriously time-consuming, requiring forms, deductions, and often third-party help. But here's the twist: The IRS already has much of the data it asks you to report. Americans still have to do the work themselves partly due to big tax prep companies that lobby to keep the status quo.

Read why the information Americans have about our tax system might be misleading

For many, filing taxes can be complicated and overwhelming. Some argue that the tax system obscures certain aspects of the US tax code, making it difficult for taxpayers to accurately assess potential reforms.

Hear why the IRS has been a frequent victim of arson

This podcast episode takes a lighthearted dive into the history of the IRS, from when the agency was founded and called the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to that one time it had to enforce a national ban on alcohol.

How to owe nothing on your federal tax return

Do you know you can avoid owing the IRS money come tax season by making changes to your W-4? For context, a W-4 is the form you fill out when you first start a new job. It tells your new company how much money to withhold from each paycheck for taxes. Find out how to avoid writing a check to the IRS each April in this article.

Watch what happens if you commit tax evasion, from phone calls to property seizure

Tax Day is one of the most dreaded days for working Americans. The IRS responds differently to late filings and late payments. If you don't file at all, the IRS might freeze your assets.

It cost the IRS $0.36 to collect $100 in 2024

It costs the IRS a significant amount of money to do part of its job—collecting money. For instance, the Internal Revenue Service spent $16.1B to collect $4.7T in taxes in 2023.

Read more about how the IRS is organized

The Internal Revenue Service is led by a commissioner, who leads the IRS for a five-year term after being selected by the president of the United States. Under the commissioner, the IRS has multiple subdivisions that work on different tax groups, such as the Wage and Investment Division to handle individual wage earners.

Half of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the IRS, while 38% have a favorable view

From July 1 to July 7, 2024, Pew Research Center conducted a survey of 9,424 adults to gauge the public's attitudes about the federal government, including government agencies and departments. Of 13 agencies, 10 had net favorable ratings of 15 percentage points or more. Topping the list were the National Park Service (76% favorable), the US Postal Service (72%) and NASA (67%).

80% of Americans are bothered that some wealthy people don't pay their fair share of taxes

That's according to 2021 data from Pew Research Center. While most people are taxed on their income, many people in America's 1% make money off of their investments instead.

Study up on capital gains basics

Common capital gains tax tips include making sure you have money set aside for your capital gains tax burden and considering making estimated payments throughout the year.

Read about what happened when one woman started filing income taxes again

Even though she was 35 and had a 14-year-old son, Gabriela Gallegos's mother had claimed her as a dependent on her tax forms for roughly a decade. After that particularly tumultuous ten-year span of Gallegos's life came to a close, she decided to file income taxes again.

Most Americans take the standard tax deduction

A tax deductible is an expense that a taxpayer or business can subtract from adjusted gross income, reducing their taxable income and therefore reducing the amount of taxes owed. Governments often use tax deductibles as a way to reward people who do things that are considered beneficial to society, like charitable donations.

Financial rules that many FIRE followers live by include guidelines around tax efficiency and more

Many FIRE proponents follow specific financial rules, like the 4% rule, in order to achieve FIRE. They also take steps to create an efficient tax strategy and take advantage of compound interest.

You have to earn under a certain gross amount per year to be eligible for a Roth IRA

A Roth IRA might make the most sense for someone confident that they will have a higher income in retirement than they do now. For 2025, those allowed to contribute to a Roth IRA must have a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of less than $150K.

If you miss the April 15 tax deadline, you could be subject to penalties

This does not apply if you file for an extension. Otherwise, you could face failure to file penalties no matter how late you file your taxes—whether it's April 16 or May 16. The penalty is 5% of the tax due for each month (or part of a month) that your return is late, minus any taxes paid on time and available credits. If you file more than 60 days late, you could owe a minimum penalty of either $525 or 100% of the unpaid tax—whichever is less.

Warren Buffett paid a lower effective tax rate than his secretary

While wages and salaries are taxed progressively at rates up to 37%, long-term investments are taxed at lower rates: 0%, 15%, or 20%. For wealthy individuals like Buffett, whose income mainly comes from investments, this means paying a lower effective tax rate than someone earning a salary.

Charting where federal revenue comes from

About 50 percent of federal revenue comes from individual income taxes, 7 percent from corporate income taxes, and another 36 percent from payroll taxes that fund social insurance programs. See breakdown in charts here.

Run your numbers in this marriage tax calculator

When it comes to federal income taxes, not every couple benefits from getting married. This calculator lets you see how much two specific people might pay if they were to get married based on their individual income levels and more. Specifically, the calculator compares the taxes a married couple would pay if they filed a joint return with what they would pay if they were unmarried and each filed as single.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

A rising number of Social Security beneficiaries are taxed on their Social Security income

That’s because while Social Security benefits increase with wages and inflation, the income limits for taxing those benefits stay the same and don’t adjust over time.

AI could be increasing the opportunities for financial fraud

Systems that can reproduce near perfect counterfeits of legitimate financial documents are increasingly prevalent and sophisticated. The international Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimate organizations lose about 5% of revenue to fraud each year.

Many 'cheap' retirement destinations contain hidden costs

Considering factors outside of housing and state income tax is crucial when thinking of an inexpensive place to retire. High energy bills, grocery tax, and insurance premiums are just a few things to look out for when picking where to live.

Look inside a retail investor's portfolio

Online investing platform eToro conducted a survey of retail investors in June 2024. It explored what assets they held and what types of stocks they liked to purchase. The most commonly held asset was cash, with 76% of retail investors holding cash in their portfolios. The next most popular asset was domestic stocks, with 49% of investors.

Six bills experts say you shouldn't put on autopay

Autopay has plenty of benefits, such as helping to avoid late fees and streamlining your bill paying process. But some experts say there are a few types of bills that you shouldn't autopay, especially if you're not confident you can pay these bills in full each term. The list includes utility bills and annual subscriptions. Read the full list here.

Just because a big name company is going public doesn’t guarantee a successful stock

A reporter dove into how highly anticipated IPOs can still be risky, and why retail investors should be wary of investing right away.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is not a pristine document, and even features a smudged anonymous handprint in the bottom left corner.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.