Tax Year by the Numbers

Just in case you haven't been keeping up with all the latest and greatest facts and figures about last year's US federal income taxes, we'll let you in on a few juicy tidbits:

Dying to know about the President's 2014 tax return?  The Obamas were able to itemize this year, but there were no medical deductions. Since taxpayers are only allowed to deduct medical expenses that are over 10% of their adjusted gross income, many people aren't eligible to take the medical deductions; the Obamas would have needed over $47,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses to take advantage of this deduction. Fortunately they were a healthy bunch last year!

Tax identity theft hasn't gone away—an estimated 1.4 million people were alerted by the IRS by letter this year that their tax identities may have been compromised. Due to IRS budget cuts, it can take an average of 278 days to resolve tax identity theft issues.

The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) was a new issue for the 2014 tax year. About 1 in 6 Americans now have Marketplace plans, and about 87% of those people received financial assistance.

Interested in getting a whole LOT of money from the IRS? The IRS's whistleblower program could net you up to $10 million. Of course, due to those IRS cutbacks, and the large amount of paperwork that they undoubtedly have to sift through from ex-employees and ex-spouses, etc., it might take some time for you to earn your fortune this way.

Taxes, numbers and statistics. What could be better this time of year?