Your Money

Tax Questions

Maryland - Comptroller of the Treasury

Federal - Internal Revenue Service

Spousal Tax Relief Eligibility Explorer
The IRS offers online advice to husbands and wives whose spouses racked up tax bills that they were forced to cover. If you were a victim of your ex-spouses mischief, you may be able to get some of your money back from the IRS. This website guides you through a series of Yes / No questions designed to determine if you were injured enough to qualify. For more information download, Publication 971 and file Form 8857.

Making Charitable Donations
Before donating money to charitable organizations, the Maryland Office of the Secretary of State provides valuable information on which you are really giving to, what types of questions to ask telephone solicitors and how to look out for deceptive practices.

Charitable Checkup
You can also determine how much your favorite charity spends on goods works v. how much it spends administratively. All of this information can be found on a federal tax form, Form 990 that nonprofits must file.

Make Your Donations CountEvery day, police and firefighters risk their lives to make your community safer. To show your support, you may consider making a donation when a fund-raiser calls from a fire or police service organization. Before you write the check, the Federal Trade Commission urges you to consider these facts:

Consumer Scams

You can learn information about the value of your mutual funds and stocks
The best way to get a snapshot of the value of any mutual funds or stocks owned by you and your spouse is to look at the financial section of a newspaper. If your local newspaper does not carry this information, look for the Wall Street Journal. Remember that these prices change daily but it will help to give you a general idea about their worth.

A Less Common but Important Asset can be a Business or Professional Practice
If you believe that a business or a professional practice is part of your marital assets, you may need an appraiser. An appraiser can help if you and your spouse disagree on the value of the business/practice or you are not sure how much it is worth. If a business is likely to have little or no value, an appraiser may be willing to offer a preliminary review for a low fee. If the cost of the appraisal is greater than the value of the business, it probably does not make sense to go ahead.

Where to start- Two professional associations of appraisers have standards that their members follow.

The Institute of Business Appraisers is a professional society that provides accreditation and training for business evaluation. The web site includes a searchable directory of members (by state, name, area code, and zip code), code of ethics and publications for sale.

The American Society of Appraisers is a professional society with the following disciplines: Appraisal Review and Management, Business Valuation, Gems and Jewelry, Machinery and Technical Specialties, Personal Property and Real Property. Their web site includes a searchable directory by name, discipline and geographic area (state, city, area code and zip code). Publications are available for purchase.

If you are not sure what you want to do, you can search the web. Some organizations may not follow national standards and you should be wary of paying money to an appraiser about whom you know very little.

Last substantive update 5/31/08 (PLL/M.A.J.)

About this website. The Maryland State Law Library, a court-related agency of the Maryland Judiciary, sponsors this site. The website was developed (1999-2007) as part of an access to justice initiative by the Maryland Legal Assistance Network (MLAN) in collaboration with a number of legal services providers serving low and moderate income Marylanders.  In the absence of file-specific attribution or copyright, the Maryland State Law Library may hold the copyright to parts of this website. You are free to copy the information for your own use or for other non-commercial purposes with the following language “Source: Maryland's People’s Law Library – www.peoples-law.org. © Maryland State Law Library, 2007.”

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