#like legit retired and collecting social security old

[goddess47]

For the Oldsters around here...

I saw yet another poll/reblog for "if you're over 30"... pish. I have shoes that are over 30! (Like, I never wear them but, well, they're nice shoes!)

So this is for the oldsters that I know are on Tumblr.

All the usual blah-blah... reblog, tag, etc...

#age #real life #I'm old #like legit retired and collecting social security old #baby's first poll!

[elizabethcariasa]

Dealing with a missing W-2 or using Form 4852 instead

Photo by Carlos Cuadros via Pexels

It's prime tax-filing time! That's not just my observation. The Internal Revenue Service itself says it typically sees a surge in filings in the final two weeks of February.

One of the main reasons for the rush is that folks finally have the tax statements they need.

Most of those documents were required to be issued, or at least in the snail mail, to taxpayers by Jan. 31. Even given U.S. Postal Service delays, it's now been plenty of time for the documents to arrive.

The crucial document for most filers is the W-2 wage statement.

But what if your earnings statement is nowhere to be found.

There are some steps you can take to track it down or get it reissued. If that fails, though, you can turn to this week's Tax Form Tuesday featured document, Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement.

Before we go the replacement route, though, let's look at ways to find your wayward W-2.

1. Check your email. Even though issuers can drop employees' W-2s into an old-fashioned U.S. post office repository by Jan. 31, more employers nowadays are going digital when it comes to employee communications. That includes tax matters. While security concerns prevent most from actually emailing W-2s to workers, most firms give workers electronic access to company documents, including tax statements. Your W-2 could be just waiting for you to go to your workplace employee portal and download your earnings statement. So check your email box, as well as your spam folder in case it went there.

2. Call your company. OK, still no W-2 in your email or snail mail box. Not it's time to touch base with your company, either by phone or stopping by the payroll or human resources office. If you moved and didn't notify your firm because your checks are directly deposited, your W-2 might have gone to your old address. Give your employer your correct mailing info and ask that it resend the W-2.

3. Get the IRS involved. Tax time keeps ticking, you've contacted your employer multiple time and you're still waiting for your W-2. It might be time to call in the big guns, i.e., the Internal Revenue Service. Start by calling the IRS toll-free at [phone].

Before you dial, have on hand:

Your name, address, phone number and Social Security number.

Your employer’s name, address and phone number.

The dates you worked for the employer.

An estimate of your wages and federal income tax withheld last year. Your last pay stub of the tax year should have these amounts.

Once you give that information to the IRS, the agency will contact your workplace about the missing tax document.

4. File using a replacement W-2. You and the IRS have cajoled, nagged and threatened and you're still without your W-2. It's time to file using a substitute wage statement. That's our featured form, Form 4852. This document asks you to estimate your wages and taxes withheld last year. Again, your final pay stub can help provide these figures.

Filling out 4852: Form 4852 is a two-page document, but 1½ pages are instructions. The actual form itself, shown below, is just 10 lines.

The first three lines are for, of course, your standard tax identifying info. You enter your name, address and Social Security number.

On line 4, let the IRS know the tax year for your missing W-2.

Next, on line 5, enter your employer's name and full address, followed on line 6, if you know it, with the company's taxpayer identification number (TIN). If you've worked there for a while, that number should be on a prior W-2 that did arrive.

Now to the fun financial stuff.

Line 7 asks for all that stuff that should be on your W-2. This is, on sublines a through i that are divided over two columns, where you enter your:

a - Wages, tips, and other compensation. Enter here your total wages received. This includes wages, noncash income, tips reported, and all other compensation before deductions for taxes, insurance, etc.

b - Social Security wages. This entry is, for most of us, all our income. One difference could be if you were well paid and made more than the Social Security wage base amount. That was $132,900 for the 2019 tax year. Don't, however, include Social Security tips and allocated tips.

c - Medicare wages and tips. Enter here your total wages and tips subject to Medicare tax. This is all of your money. Unlike with Social Security taxable wages, this portion of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes is not limited. You also could even owe the Additional Medicare Tax if you made a six-figure sum.

d - Social Security tips. Here is where you enter the tips you reported to your employer for the year. The total of lines 7b and 7d can't exceed the Social Security wage base for the tax year that you reported on line 4.

e - Federal income tax withheld. This is a key amount, both to you in filing your taxes and seeing if you owe more and Uncle Sam, who's also very interested in whether you him more.

f - State income tax withheld. The form wants the amount as well as the state doing the collecting.

g - Local income tax withheld. For all y'all who live in places that also collect city, county or other local taxes, this is where that amount and jurisdiction name go.

h - Social security tax withheld. This is the FICA payroll tax portion just you paid — 6.2 percent of line 7b — toward the federal retirement benefit. Your employer's portion is not entered here. However, you do need to enter the Social Security tax on any tips you earned.

i - Medicare tax withheld. Just like with Social Security taxes, this is the amount you only paid toward the federal government's medical insurance program. It should be 1.45 percent of the Medicare wages and tips you report on line 7c, as well as the 0.9 percent Additional Medicare Tax withheld on any earnings of more than $200,000.

Again, pull out your final pay stub and use that information to arrive at the best possible estimates of what to enter on these lines.

Line 8 is where you enter information (on 10 sublines a through j) related to income you received from pensions, annuities, retirement or profit-sharing plans, IRAs, insurance contracts and the like but for which you never got a Form 1099-R. If you don’t have complete and accurate information from a Form 1099-R, use a distribution statement from your plan trustee to help complete line 8. For additional information, get Form 1099-R and the Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498.

On line 9, the IRS wants to know just how you arrived at the amounts you entered on lines 7 and/or 8. This is as simple as telling the tax agency that you estimated the amounts, used your pay stubs or used a statement reporting your distribution.

Similarly, line 10 wants more from you on what steps you took to get your missing earnings statements from your employer or payer.

For legit filing only: You really are just trying to file your taxes with the correct earnings information. That's why you bugged your boss and now have resorted to filing using the substitute Form 4852.

Some less honest filers, however, obviously have used the replacement W-2 to fill out fraudulent returns. That's why the IRS warns on the form that it "will challenge the claims of individuals who attempt to avoid or evade their federal tax liability by using Form 4852 in a manner other than as prescribed."

Those potential penalties for the improper use of Form 4852 include:

Accuracy-related penalties equal to 20 percent of the amount of taxes that should have been paid,

Civil fraud penalties equal to 75 percent of the amount of taxes that should have been paid, and

A $5,000 civil penalty for filing a frivolous return or submitting a specified frivolous submission as described by Internal Revenue Code section 6702.

Amended return if W-2 arrives: You went to all the trouble to fill out your substitute W-2 and file using Form 4852 and your dang W-2 finally arrived!

In the W-2 amounts are different than what you came up with on your 4852, then you'll need to amend your tax return by filing Form 1040-X using the official document's accurate amounts.

So that you don't have to do the double filing duty, you might want to wait a little longer for that W-2. But if March rolls around and you're still waiting, then you can turn to Form 4852.

You also might find these items of interest:

Dealing with a wrong tax statement

The many versions of IRS Form 1099

2019 tax return filing checklist, including documents needed for Schedule A

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[businessweekme]

How to Avoid World Cup Scams

It’s not just football fans who are looking forward to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Scammers have also been kicking it up a notch and looking to cash in on the hype surrounding the quadrennial soccer extravaganza. The fraudsters will attempt to gain access to your personal data, typically credit card details or login credentials, using various methods. What are some of the scams that you may encounter?

Sting in the tail

One common method is to tout a variety of “wares” in large-scale campaigns: cheap match tickets, ticket-inclusive hospitality packages, accommodation-booking services, flights to match-hosting cities, to name just a few. These “bargains” are typically hawked via fraudulent emails or social media posts and messages that, as is their wont, play on people’s emotions. Who doesn’t like a good deal, after all?

Naturally, there’s a kicker. Once the targets are bamboozled into believing that the spam offers something they want or need and click on the provided link, they end up on a phishing website that can convincingly imitate World Cup branding or might even be an outright duplicate of the genuine site. Having been requested to do so, the recipients dutifully input their personal information so they can pay for and receive their “tickets”. Armed with credit card details thus provided, the attackers will raid the victims’ bank accounts.

Fraudsters also impersonate FIFA, its sponsors, or event sponsors and partners such as Visa, Adidas or Coca-Cola, to send missives to congratulate you on your “win” in a lottery. In order for your “prize” to be released, they will ask for your personal details and/or request a payment upfront in a kind of “advance-fee scam”.

Other scams may focus on travel visas or the Fan ID, the latter being an identification document required by Russian authorities to gain admittance to a match along with a valid ticket. Furthermore, using bogus offers or counterfeit websites, fraudsters may attempt to sell you bogus World Cup merchandise.

Even if you have no intention of visiting a World Cup venue, you may receive an email or social media message that contains a malicious attachment or link, supposedly to games, apps, footage of highlights, videos with hot news about players, or other tempting content. With the “help” of malware such as a banking Trojan implanted on your machine after you open the attachment or click the link, the attackers may extract your financial information.

In another common scenario, you may be offered to watch games for free on a malicious – or legitimate, but compromised – live-streaming website. All that you’re then asked to do is download additional software or update an existing program (such as Flash Player), but you inadvertently end up compromising your computer with malware or unwanted software such as adware or a browser hijacker.

Attackers may also gain access to your personal data when you connect to a public Wi-Fi hotspot. They can set up a rogue hotspot that can sport a generic name like “Free Wi-Fi” and act like a decoy. Even the use of a legitimate public Wi-Fi network isn’t safe unless the connection is secured. Attacks at insecure hotspots are typically “man-in-the-middle” attacks, where an attacker is able to intercept your data on its travels.

Another threat looming large over tourists is ATM scams. Russian law enforcement officials recently issued a warning about fraudsters buying retired cash machines with the aim of refitting them so as to target tourists. There is also good ol’ ATM skimming that secretly swipes your payment card information in a practice sometimes aided and abetted by other tools, such as fake keypads or hidden cameras.

Showing the red card to scammers

FIFA has warned that match tickets are only available on its site, while official ticket-inclusive hospitality packages are only available through an appointed company and its sales agents. A number of ticket listings and sites claiming to sell tickets have been removed, but we’re unlikely to have seen the last of them. The same goes for fake offers on legitimate (e.g. auction or social media) sites. By purchasing tickets from anywhere other than the official source, you’re very unlikely to gain admission to the stadium.

Basic online defenses apply here, too. This includes being astute in recognising phishing messages, which rely on techniques that have been around for several decades and yet remain some of the most effective methods for fraud used by cybercriminals. Be wary of too-good-to-be-true and out-of-the-blue offerings and communications that ask for your sensitive information – a request at the heart of any phishing attempt. Legitimate organizations such as banks should never ask for your details by email. Similarly straightforward guidance extends to lottery scams: lottery companies do not ask for payments upfront in order for you to collect a prize.

Don’t assume that a website is legit, just because it has that comforting green padlock (i.e. HTTP Secure/HTTPS sign) to the left of the URL. A secure connection and a secure site are two different things. Scammers, too, are increasingly embracing HTTPS. Similarly, the mere fact that a site appears in a Google search doesn’t mean that the site is genuine. Malefactors can boost their sites’ search rankings via search engine optimization (SEO) strategies or paid ads. Use only tried-and-true channels to receive the latest updates on your favorite teams and players.

Likewise, don’t assume that a public Wi-Fi network is legit. Even if they’re not set up by cybercriminals, many public wireless access points (WAPs) can leave you vulnerable to dangers simply because they’re unsecured. Attackers can easily use an unencrypted Wi-Fi connection to eavesdrop on the traffic and pick up sensitive information that you type, as well as inject malware into the traffic. Avoid using online banking or personal shopping on insecure connections and/or use a reputable virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt traffic between your device and the internet.

As for not falling victim to ATM skimming, the simplest precaution is to use cash machines in high-traffic areas, together with keeping a keen eye for anything that looks out of the ordinary or that shows that the machine may have been tampered with.

Fever pitch

As we inch closer to the World Cup, the attackers will seek to exploit the fever that will increasingly grip footie fans. Anything related to the tournament and players will be hot news, which ultimately increases the likelihood that a victim will click a malicious link or open a malicious attachment. At the risk of repeating ourselves, the bottom line is never to succumb to the temptation if the message comes from an unknown sender, or if it is an unsolicited message from a known sender, since it’s easy to spoof email addresses. And, as the old soccer adage says, when in doubt, kick it out!

 Tomas Foltyn is a security writer at ESET

The post How to Avoid World Cup Scams appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

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#Cybersecurity #ESET #FIFA World Cup 2018 #scams