Nagging Tax Questions? Click on This

With the April 16 tax deadline looming, it's bad enough that you have to sift through piles of expense invoices, medical bills, charge card receipts and the like. But there's also the matter of knowing what the tax rules are.

Whether you're a do-it-yourself filer or someone who likes to double check/reduce costs for the accountant, a host of sites can provide the tax guidance you need.

The IRS Web Site: No Lines, No Busy Signals

The Internal Revenue Service has spent millions creating a Web site that helps visitors make sense of this nation's huge tax system. Have they succeeded? The answer is yes and well, maybe. There is definitely as much good information as you'd find in your average J.K. Lasser's tax guide. Here are some highlights.

Forms

In that dark, distant time before the Internet, people lined up at IRS offices for things like Form T, which you may need if you got paid for any trees chopped down on your property last year. Today, just click on the search page at the IRS Web site if you know the name or at least the topic area of the document you want. If you can't find what you want, the site's download page offers a list of 742 forms.

Overview

If you're looking for a tax time overview, or perhaps better put, a comprehensive view, check out the IRS's Publication 17. It's a somewhat exhaustive 276-page instruction manual for individuals, the government's version of "Tax Filing for Dummies."

Specific Questions

For specific questions, head to the site's FAQ section, Tax Trails. You'll be asked a series of questions designed to give you the answer you seek.

For example, I clicked on the area covering pension and annuity income. After a brief introduction, the subsequent screen asked what type of retirement plan I wanted to learn about. When I clicked commercial annuities, I was eventually directed to Publication 575 covering pension and annuity income.

Hard-Core Investment Questions

One key doc that many investors will want to peruse is IRS Publication 550 Investment Income and Expenses. This tells you the kind of stuff you need to know beyond the fact that dividends get declared on Schedule B, while capital gains go on Schedule D. It answers vexing questions like how to amortize the premium paid for a bond yielding tax-exempt interest.

Problem is, Pub 550 runs some 70 pages. Because it's a pdf file (using Adobe Acrobat) you can do a keyword search. If you really want to navigate through it quickly, try the Web-based version of the same booklet. Links built into the booklet take you to supporting publications.

Mutual Fund Questions

IRS Publication 564 Mutual Fund Distributions should help you wade through the reporting requirements for funds owned outside a tax-deferred account. (For funds you own within an IRA or, say, 401(k), relax. Generally there's no reporting required.) Pub 564 comes with a fill-in chart to help you figure out the distributions you received from the fund that must be declared. Once again, the Web-based version might let you find what you need faster.

Tax Sites for Active Investors

Alas, the tax questions most active investors face are a lot tougher than determining your cost basis in a mutual fund. How, for instance, do you deduct losses from covered call (glossary) sales when the call was repurchased and rolled out to a LEAP that expires next January? What you probably need most, given this late date, is a general understanding of the relevant regs. That way you can at least rough out your return for your accountant to polish later.

TheStreet.com's Tax Center is your starting point. TSC Senior Writer Tracy Byrnes' articles cover everything from home office deductions to the IRS rules governing index options trades.

Byrnes has also covered the little-loved wash-sale rule. (Scroll to the middle of this page for a complete list of her articles on wash sales.) That rule generally prevents investors from deducting losses on stock they've sold if they repurchase the same security or a similar one within a specified time period. For a good background explanation on wash sales go to Fairmark Press's Tax Guide for Investors.

For Advanced Users Only

Think of these last two links as nuclear weapons. In a dire emergency they stand ready. Just pray you never have to use them.

First there's the U.S. House of Representatives' search engine to the entire U.S. Code, which, of course, includes the U.S. Tax Code. The search engine is set up to look for words appearing close together, which is the normal way search engines like Yahoo! find information. If you're planning to refile your taxes from a prior year, you can search past versions of the code for a read on the applicable laws at that time.

This final link definitely falls under the abandon-hope-all-ye-who-enter category. It takes you to a complete list of IRS weekly bulletins going back to 1996. These bulletins contain IRS rulings that relate to the interpretation and enforcement of tax code provisions, along with proposed changes in specific regulations. Bulletins run anywhere from 60 to 130 pages or more. However, being pdf files, they are individually searchable. Happy hunting.

My Favorite Link

My favorite tax link on the Web is a search page on the IRS site telling me that the government still owes refund checks to thousands of Americans. The IRS kindly provides a link to help you track down refunds you haven't received.

Turns out, they don't owe me a dime.