The Best Tax Book Nobody Buys 2025/2026

How Life Events Affect Your Taxes and What You Should Do About It

With the Latest BBB Tax Bill Details including No Tax on Tips, Overtime and Car Interest!
What makes this book different?
Two Things: It is organized by life event instead of tax topics and it is written in English.
88 Chapters and 4 appendixes the majority of which are either absolutely necessary tax knowledge, timely updated information for a specific year or tax law, or a specific life event such as having kids or retiring for which it would be good to know how it affects your taxes, preferably BEFORE you file or make a mistake. Each chapter is organized in the best way possible to make it easy to understand, and, most importantly, easy to apply to your personal situation. Most chapters have a section on what you NEED to know, a section with nitty-gritty details, a section of the author's personal best advice and often some specifics for the military. If this system doesn't work for a chapter, a different system is used.

Here is a sample list of chapters:

Read Me First
Do I Have to File a Tax Return?
How Should I Be Preparing my Taxes?
How Much Should Tax Preparation Cost?
10 Simple Pieces of Tax Advice
Common Tax Myths
How Fast Can I Get my Refund?
Where's my Refund?
I Owe Taxes and Can't Pay
I Owe Taxes and Want to Get a Refund
I Get a Big Refund and Want a Bigger Paycheck
I Get a Big Refund, Is That Okay?
I Get a Big Refund and Don't Know What to Do with It
I Want to Lower my Taxes
I Can't File by April 15th
What is My Filing Status?
The Long Sordid Tax Forms Tale
Can I Use Itemized Deductions?
I am Getting Married
I am Having a Child
My Kid's Getting a Job
My Child Had a Child
My Child is Getting Married
I am Getting Divorced (or already am)
My Spouse Abandoned me and our Children
My Spouse Died
I Inherited Money or Property
I am Buying a Home
I Made Energy Efficient Home Improvements
I am Buying a Car
I Have to File Married Filing Separately
I Have Medical Expenses
I Have a High Deductible Health Plan and/or HSA
I am Donating to Charity
I am Living with Someone Who Helps Pay my Bills
I am Supporting my Parents
I am Supporting an Adult Relative or Friend
I am Supporting a Minor Who is Not My Child
Someone Claimed my Child!
My Tax Return Got Rejected by the IRS!
I (or my Child) am Going to College
I Have Job Expenses
I Tele-Commute
I Work Overseas
I Lost my Job
I Had to Move
I Sold my Home
I Sold my Rental Property
I Sold a Home that Wasn't my Primary Residence
I Get Tips at Work
I Get Paid Overtime
I Have Investments Outside of Work
A Quick Discussion of Cryptocurrency
I Have Tax Sheltered Investments
I Want to Take Money out of my IRA or 401k
I Had Debt Written Off
I Lost my House (Foreclosure)
I am Turning 65
I am Retired (or retiring)
I am Retiring from the Military
I am Receiving Social Security (or Thinking about It)
I am Receiving an Annuity or Pension
I am Paying on Student Loans
I am Changing Jobs
What the Hell is Alternative Minimum Tax?
I Sell Amway, Mary Kay, etc.
I’m an Independent Contractor or I Got a Form 1099-NEC
I Drive for UBER (or Lyft etc)
I am a Real Estate Agent
I am an Artist
I am Renting out my Former Home
What about Obamacare?
I Get Health Insurance Through the Marketplace
I Do Not Have Health Insurance
State by State Tax Guide for Military
The IRS Called and is Threatening Me!
I Got a Letter from the IRS
IRS Letter Types
I Got a CP2000 Letter from the IRS!
I Got This Tax Form
Do I Get the 20% Business Deduction?
What About the Big Beautiful Bill?
Appendix A – Support Worksheet
Appendix B - Insolvency Worksheet
Appendix C - Sample IRS Response Letter
Appendix D - Fixing DFAS Witholding