Saving on Taxes

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made $42.7 million over the past two years and paid $6.2 million in taxes, according to documents released Tuesday by his campaign.

Which presidential candidate paid the most in taxes? Who is the most charitable? Here's an inside look at the top candidates' 2010 income tax returns.

What can the public -- and his rivals -- expect to learn when Mitt Romney releases his 2010 tax return on Tuesday?

So Mitt Romney thinks his effective tax rate is about 15%.

The IRS has collected $4.4 billion from two programs that allowed tax evaders hiding money in offshore accounts to come clean and said it will launch a similar initiative this year.

The IRS is discovering vastly more mistakes on tax returns than it used to.

The IRS not only doled out fewer tax refunds last year, but it also cut smaller checks with the average refund slipping by nearly $100.

It may be a new year, but when Congress returns from its winter break it will be all old business that lawmakers failed to finish before Christmas.

The IRS audited one out of every 8 millionaires last year, the third year in a row the agency has ramped up its enforcement of the nation's top earners.

The IRS is giving taxpayers two extra days to get their taxes turned in this year.

Same-sex spouses are paying as much as $6,000 a year in extra taxes because the federal government doesn't recognize gay marriage, according to an analysis conducted for CNNMoney by tax specialists.

While the fate of the payroll tax extension is still uncertain on Capitol Hill this week, at least some Americans can look forward to tax breaks at the state level when 2012 rolls around.

In two weeks, the payroll tax cut that has saved workers an average of $1,000 this year will expire -- unless lawmakers in the next few days do what both parties swear they want to do and extend it.

Democrats say imposing a millionaire surtax to help pay for the cost of extending the payroll tax cut is only fair. Republicans say it would be a job-killer.

Like many Americans, you're probably gearing up this month to write a check to your favorite charity, both to show your goodwill toward men and to nab some last-minute tax savings. (December tends, after all, to be the most generous month, with about $28 billion in donations recorded last year, according to the Atlas of Giving.)

Tax fraudsters are getting more creative -- and, in some cases, more daring. But the IRS is making it harder for them to get away with their tricks.

Democrats and Republicans both support extending the payroll tax cut for workers, and they both agree that the cost of the extension should be offset through changes elsewhere in the budget.

The Internal Revenue Service is holding onto tens of millions of dollars in tax refunds that it hasn't been able to deliver to consumers.