Free tax help from the IRS is just a phone call away. The IRS provides various services through its toll-free telephone numbers. You can order forms, listen to prerecorded tax information, check on the status of your refund, ask questions about your tax return or inquire about a letter or notice you may have received.

If you paid someone to care for a child or a dependent so you could work, you may be able to reduce your tax by claiming the credit for child and dependent care expenses on your tax return, according to the IRS. This credit is available to people who, in order to work or to look for work, have to pay for child care services for dependents under age 13.

If this year's tax filing deadline will be a pay day for you and you cannot pay the full amount that you owe, you should still file your return by the due date and pay as much as you can. The IRS may allow you to pay any remaining balance over time in monthly installments through an Installment Agreement or possibly even settle for less than the full amount owed through its Offer in Compromise program.If you find that you cannot pay the full amount by the filing deadline, you should file your return and pay as much as you can by the due date.

The law that required the IRS to reorganize also required the tax agency to include the protection of taxpayer rights as one of its most important values. In its day-to-day operations, the IRS and its employees make taxpayer rights a top priority. This includes explaining those rights to taxpayers, keeping taxpayer information private and confidential and being professional and courteous. Besides what is expected of IRS employees, taxpayers have many other rights. They have the right to have someone represent them before the IRS and to accompany them to any meeting with IRS employees.

If you give any one person gifts valued at more than $10,000 in a year, it is necessary to report the total gift to the Internal Revenue Service. You may even have to pay tax on the gift. The person who receives your gift does not have to report the gift to the IRS or pay gift or income tax on its value.You make a gift when you give property, including money, or the use or income from property, without expecting to receive something of equal value in return.

With more and more U.S. citizens earning money from foreign sources, the IRS reminds people that they must report all such income on their tax return, unless it is exempt under federal law.This applies whether a person lives inside or outside the United States.

Do you work at a hair salon, barber shop, casino, golf course, hotel, restaurant or drive a taxi cab? The tip income you receive as an employee from those services is taxable income, according to the IRS.As taxable income, these tips are subject to federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes, and may be subject to state income tax as well.You must keep a running daily log of all your tip income.

Some taxpayers with capital gains may now use the shorter Form 1040A. If your only capital gains or losses are capital gains distributions from mutual funds, and you are otherwise eligible to use Form 1040A, you may report these gains on line 10 of the 1040A. If you must use Form 1040 for some other reason, but have no other capital gains or losses, you can skip Schedule D and report your capital gains distributions on line 13 of the 1040, checking the box to indicate that Schedule D was not required.

There are some instances where you may not be required to file a tax return. But the IRS reminds you to keep a few things in mind. First, over 70 percent of all individual filers of federal income tax returns are due a tax refund, and it may be to your advantage to file, even if you are not required to. Next, the law requires you to file a tax return if your income is above a certain level.