Property Tax Cut Approved by Georgia Legislature

At last. A tax bill everyone in Georgia can agree on.

Last Friday morning, the Georgia General Assembly approved a real estate property tax cut as part of the budget deal. Homeowners will get a $100 property tax cut under the deal that must still be signed by Governor Sonny Perdue.

The question is, how will you get the money?

Georgia homeowners interviewed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution said they'd like to get a check. But another option is for homeowners to get a tax credit on the annual property tax bill they receive. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a check in my pocket today than receive a tax bill that's $100 less than it should be. I'll feel the money more if it's in my pocket sooner rather than later.

Don't worry, it won't be that soon. While the budget deal passed unanimously in both the House and Senate, this week the wrangling begins. And then sometime after that, you might hear that your $100 check is in the mail.

What to do if you can't pay your IRS tax bill in full

Your taxes are due by midnight tonight, but if you find yourself in the position of owing Uncle Sam money that you don't have, the IRS offers several tax payment options that might help.

First, you can request an extension of 30 to 120 days to pay your tax bill. Taxpayers who qualify for an extension will pay less in penalties and interest than if the debt was repaid through an installment agreement. You can request an extension of time to pay at IRS.gov and click on the Online Payment Agreement Option.

If you owe $25,000 or less, you can opt to pay the balance in monthly installments by attaching Form 9465 to your tax return. It costs up to $105 to set up a monthly installment plan, plus you'll pay taxes and penalties on what you owe.

The best thing you can do is be upfront with the IRS about what you owe – and how you plan to pay it off.

A convicted felon says it's easy to scam the IRS. And that should make all of us very worried.

Last week, a convicted felon told Congress just how easy it is to scam the IRS.

The felon testified that he used stolen identities, fake tax information and then filed electronically. He used refund anticipation loans to get his cash immediately after he filed the fake returns.

All told, he defrauded identity theft victims, the government and banks of more than $1 million.

If that weren't bad enough, this convicted felon asked Congress why the IRS does not require taxpayers to use a personal identification number (also known as a PIN) or the use of a mother's maiden name as an additional security measure for electronic returns.

It's a good question. What's the answer?

The IRS said it would be too expensive and damaging to the interests of many legitimate taxpayers by making filing more difficult.

You've got to be kidding. How much more difficult could the IRS make it to file our tax returns?

Shopping for homeowners insurance

Regular listeners to my show on Sunday know that my husband Sam and I have been shopping around for a new homeowners' insurance policy.

The reason is our homeowner's insurance premium had nearly doubled in about 3 or 4 years. I'm sure your homeowner's insurance premium bill is frightening, too.

We went to our insurance agent, he shopped around and low and behold, he was able to cut our premium substantially if we changed insurance companies. Part of the discount is due to our top credit scores, and part is due to our decision to buy auto insurance from the same company.

Here's the interesting part: We were all set to sign but when we called to cancel our auto insurance, which we've had with the same company for 15 years, they were suddenly very interested in keeping our business and offered to put together a special insurance package.

When Sam called them months ago to ask them to bid on our business, they weren't interested. Now that we're on the verge of leaving, we're a top priority.

Shopping for an alarm system. Be sure to read the fine print

One of the ways you can save on your ever-increasing homeowners' insurance policy is to make safety improvements to your home, including installing an alarm system.

One of the companies we've been talking to about our new homeowners and auto insurance policy has a relationship with a leading alarm company. So we had them and their big local competitor in for a round of presentations.

That was a really interesting evening. If you're not paying close attention to what's going on, it's easy to misunderstand what's being offered, how much protection you're buying, how much you'll pay upfront and then monthly, and what's included in the monthly cost.

With the two companies I interviewed, there were big differences – The local company was almost twice as expensive as the national company, even when using my existing components. And, if you read the fine print, the cost was actually 20 percent higher than quoted.

That said, I wasn't that impressed with the national company either. But if I choose one of them, I'll save $10 per month on my homeowners' insurance premium.