How to Check the Status of Your Tax Refund Online – Tax Deduction
How to Check the Status of Your Tax Refund Online
Richard A. Chapo
So, you were pleasantly surprised to learn that you are getting a refund on your taxes. Congratulations! The IRS expects to issue approximately $54 billion dollars in refunds for the 2003 tax year. The question for most taxpayers expecting a return is, "Where is my refund"
Check Your Refund Status Online
The easiest way to check on your refund is to ask the IRS through IRS.gov. On the home page of the site, you will see a "Wheres My Refund" link. Using the service is fairly easy. You will need a copy of your tax return to provide the necessary information to get the status of your refund. Specifically, you need to provide your social security number, you tax filing status and the exact amount of your refund. The reason the IRS requires all of this information is purely for security purposes, to wit, the agency wants to make sure it is giving access only to the taxpayer. Again, all of this information should be on your return. If it is not, something is very wrong!
Once you submit the required information, the IRS will provide online results typically showing:
1. That the return was received and is in processing;
2. The expected mailing date or direct deposit date of your refund; or
3. Whether your refund could not be issued because of a delivery problem.
In some cases, the results may alert you to the fact that the IRS is reviewing your tax return because of errors or questionable entries. In such a case, it is highly advised that you review your return with a qualified tax professional and make absolutely sure that the return will stand up to scrutiny.
How Long Do You Have To Wait Before Checking
If you filed your tax return electronically, you should be able to access the status of your refund within 48 to 72 hours. Since the return is coming into the database electronically, it should be assimilated into the system fairly quickly. If you do not file your return electronically, you are going to have to wait three weeks or more before the status of your return can be checked. As you can imagine, the IRS is receiving an enormous amount of paper tax returns and it takes time to organize and enter the returns into the system.
How Long Should It Take To Receive Your Tax Refund
If you are expecting a refund, the time to issue the refund will depend upon how you filed your return. If you filed a paper return via regular mail, you refund should be issued in six to eight weeks from the date it was received by the IRS. Alternatively, if you filed your return electronically, you should expect to receive your refund in three to four weeks. If you elected to have your refund directly deposited in your banking account, you should take one week off of the above estimates.
About The Author
Richard Chapo is President of BusinessTaxRecovery.com. Visit BusinessTaxRecovery.com to subscribe to a free newsletter offering monthly tax deduction tips for small businesses or contact Richard at Richard@businesstaxrecovery.com.
How Will Check 21 Affect You – Debt Consolidation
How Will Check 21 Affect You
Shannon Jarvies
You may already be familiar with Check 21, a federal law that goes into effect on October 28, 2004. If youre like me, this may be something you hadnt heard about until just yesterday. The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, otherwise known as Check 21, is the process of turning the checks your write into images and transmitting them by computer.
What does this mean to you
Expect the time your check clears to decrease drastically. If you live paycheck to paycheck and often count on a one or two day "grace period" to get funds into your account after paying bills, youll need to re-organize your budgeting process. Checks will clear in a matter of hours now, not days.
You will no longer be getting your cancelled checks back with your bank statement. If you get anything at all, it will be a "substitute check" which is a certain kind of copy of your original check.
You may be charged extra fees. Its possible that by using this method, your check will be paid twice: once with the original and once with the scanned image. Or there may be an error made in the amount a check was written for in the process of turning an paper check into an electronic check.
What you should do:
Re-organize your budget. You have to make sure that you have the funds in your account to cover every check you write to avoid bouncing any checks.
Request substitute checks. You will not be entitled to a credit to your account if an error has been made unless you have a substitute check.
Balance your checkbook. If you are not in the habit of balancing your checkbook with your bank statement each month, you need to start. This will ensure that youll find any mistakes that may have been made.
Learn more. Consumers Union did not support Check 21. Find out why and learn more about Check 21 HERE
About The Author
Shannon Jarvies is a WAHM with five beautiful children and a wonderful husband. She also runs a Debt Management Website where you can find resources on how to eliminate debt including debt consolidation, budgeting help and money saving tips and ideas.
shannon@consolidationdebtfree.com
Some Basic Tests To Check Your Website For Accessibility – Web
Some Basic Tests To Check Your Website For Accessibility
Trenton Moss
The Disability Discrimination Act says that websites must be made accessible to disabled people. So how can you check that your website is up to par There are a number of basic tests you can make to address some of the main issues. Webcredible http://www.webcredible.co.uk, a web accessibility and usability consultant, suggest a number of guidelines that provide a good start in increasing accessibility to your site visitors:
1. Check informational images for alternative text
Place the cursor over an informational image, for example, the organisation logo. Does a yellow box appear with a brief, accurate description of the image For users whose browsers do not support images, this alternative text is what they will see or hear in place of the image.
2. Check decorative images for alternative text
Place the cursor over a decorative image that does not have any function other than to look nice. Does a yellow box appear with a description of the image It should not. There is no reason for users whose browsers do not support images to know that this image is there, as it serves no purpose.
Be careful though as this is not a foolproof test. If a yellow box does not appear, this could mean one of two things:
- The alternative text of the image is assigned a null value, which means that it will be ignored by browsers that do not support images. This is the ideal scenario.
- The alternative text of the image is simply not set at all, which means that users whose browsers do not support images will be alerted to its existence but will be unable to find out what purpose it carries