The Week Just Past: Winter Fades, Tax Day Looms

The House Works on Tax Reform

You may be eligible for Free Tax Prep

Online Industry Attack Sign of Things to Come?

Rodney’s Outreach Office in Wayne

 

The Week Just Past: Winter Fades, Tax Day Looms

“The end of March traditionally signals annual events: 1) winter is finally beginning to release its grip on northern New Jersey; and 2) with Tax Day just two weeks away, residents are forced to turn their attention to their 2012 returns.

“Everywhere I go in Morris, Passaic, Essex and Sussex counties, businessmen and women tell me that they need to get government ‘off their backs’ to allow them to grow their companies and create jobs. Of course, that means dialing back on unnecessary and excessive regulations and edicts.  But it also means increasing American competitiveness and creating more American jobs by streamlining the tax code.

“This country needs tax reform to accomplish this. I support lowering the tax rate for individuals and businesses, including small business owners, down from the top federal rate of 36%.

“Further, we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, which makes us uncompetitive with other countries seeking to increase their international trade, a key area for future job creation. It needs to be lowered. In addition, we should allow businesses to bring back their overseas profits without having to pay a tax penalty so those proceeds can be invested at home.

“In the House, the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee is currently working on ‘comprehensive tax reform’ that would eliminate loopholes that prevent some from paying their fair share, while lowering rates for everyone else. Chairman Dave Camp (MI) recently announced the formation of 11 separate Tax Reform Working Groups which are now accepting public comments.  Read on to find out how you can participate!

“Our goal: to pass a tax reform bill that spurs economic growth and job creation before winter returns later this year.”

Rodney Frelinghuysen

Recommended Reading: Ben Casselman, writing in the Tuesday Wall Street Journal, “College Grads May be Stuck in Low-Skill Jobs.”

The House Works on Tax Reform

The House Ways and Means Committee has formed 11 Tax Reform Working Groups to review current law in their designated issue areas and then identify, research and compile feedback related to the topic of the working group.

The working groups will be responsible for compiling feedback on their designated topic from: (1) stakeholders, (2) academics and think tanks, (3) practitioners, (4) the general public and (5) colleagues in the House of Representatives.

Once the work of those groups has been completed, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) will prepare a report for the full Committee that describes current law in each issue area and only summarizes these submissions and other information gathered by the Committee Members.

Public comments will be accepted through Monday, April 15, 2013. Those comments will be included in the final JCT report, which will be delivered to the Ways and Means Committee on Monday, May 6, 2013. The process for submitting comments is below.

• Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit comments can email tax.reform@mail.house.gov.
• In the subject line of the email, please indicate “Comments: (name of) Tax Reform Working Group” (note: be sure to specify the name of the working group in the subject line - e.g., Energy Tax Reform Working Group).
• Attach your submission as a Word document.
• In addition to the Word document attachment, please include in the body of the email a contact name, physical address, phone number and email address.
• For questions, or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-3625 or (202) 225-1721.

To view a list of the 11 working groups, including the Chair and Vice Chair for each group, click here.

To view comments that have been submitted to the working groups, click here. 

You may be eligible for Free Tax Prep

Have you filed your taxes yet? You may be eligible for free tax preparation. 

Tax return season has come again and some Americans will have a challenging time filing their taxes. However, there are free tax preparation assistance programs available for individuals who are in need of help. For instance, the Free File Program allows you to use free software programs to file your taxes online from home.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)  

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is a federal and state tax preparation service in which certified volunteers provide free tax help to qualified individuals. 

Click here to Learn More About VITA or to find your nearest VITA site call 1-800-906-9887

What do you need? 

• ID and Social Security Number for self and all dependents
• Last year's tax return
• All W2s
• All 1099s
• Receipt/evidence for all other deductions and/or credits
• Check book (banking information is needed to receive your refund via direct deposit)
• If you have a tax deductible caregiver, please have their full name, address and phone number 

Free File Program

The Free File Program is a partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, which is comprised of private sector companies that offer free tax preparation software. It provides eligible taxpayers with free online individual income tax preparation and electronic filing services. 

Participating Free File Companies Include:

• Online Taxes at OLT.com
• TaxSlayer
• eSmartTax By Liberty Tax Service
• TaxACT Free File Edition
• EfileTaxReturns.com
• TurboTax® Freedom Edition
• OnlineTaxPros.com
• Tax Simple
• FileYourTaxes.com
• ezTaxReturn.com
• 1040NOW.NET
• 1040.com Free File Edition
• Free1040TaxReturn.com
• H&R Block's Free File
• FreeTaxUSA® IRS Free File Edition

Click here to Learn More About the Free File Program. 

Recommended Reading: Jay Hancock, writing in the Tuesday Washington Post, “Health law could boost use of temp workers.”

Online Industry Attack Sign of Things to Come?

Have you noticed that the internet was “slow” this week?  It might be because of an ongoing “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) against a European company - one of the largest computer attacks on the internet, causing widespread congestion and jamming crucial internet infrastructure around the globe.

DDoS attacks work by overwhelming target servers with traffic - like hundreds of postal letters being jammed through a single mail slot at the same time.

This attack – said to be far more powerful than any attack launched to date by any Iranian, Russian or Chinese organization, is part of a dispute between two private companies in Europe.  The “target,” Spamhaus of Geneva, is described as a “spam-fighting” firm.  Many believe the alleged attacker is Cyberbunker located in the Netherlands, a company that hosts web sites. 

What makes this incident different is that the attackers were taking advantage of weaknesses in the internet's basic infrastructure to trick servers from across the internet into routing billions of bits of junk traffic to Spamhaus every second.  The sheer magnitude of the attack is having a ripple effect across the internet and may be affecting email transmission.

It is important to note that this is a commercial industry battle.  The next time, it could be a damaging terrorist attack against the United States or its allies.

Read more: In an article by John Markhoff and Nicole Perlroth in the Tuesday New York Times, “Firm is Accused of Sending Spam, and Fight James Internet,” here.

Recommended Reading: David Kanga and Victor Cha, writing for ForeignPolicy.com “Think Again: North Korea is a lot more dangerous than you think.”

Rodney’s Outreach Office in Wayne

Rodney’s Outreach Office in Wayne will be open on Wednesday, and every Wednesday, to serve the eastern portions of the newly-drawn 11^th Congressional District.  His Congressional Constituent Service Staff will hold office hours:

9 AM to 4 PM

Wayne Township Municipal Complex

475 Valley Road

“As your Representative in Washington D.C., I am your direct point of contact with the federal government, its departments, agencies, and Congress and am always glad to help when residents are encountering difficulties with federal agencies,” Rodney said.  “I will be maintaining my primary Constituent Service office in Morristown (973-984-0711), but to best serve residents, I am establishing walk-in Outreach Offices. Experienced staff will be on hand to listen and help.”

“I have an excellent staff and all of us are here to serve our residents.  I take ‘casework’ – resolving people’s problems with federal agencies – very seriously and work hard to get them the answers they deserve.  Additionally, we assist constituents with their plans to visit Washington, D.C.”

For the last election, a bipartisan Congressional Redistricting Commission drew new boundaries of the 11^th District, adding 14 new towns in Passaic, Essex and Sussex counties.