Resources
Listed below are a few web sites we find to be especially helpful. Just click on the link to be transferred to one of the following sites:
Nebraska Department of Revenue
(http://www.revenue.state.ne.us/). Provides information for individuals, businesses, and charities and the answers to other frequent state tax questions.
Internal Revenue Service
(http://www.irs.gov/). This site has everything related to IRS—from “Where’s My Refund?” to all those complicated rules and regulations IRS follows. It has information for individuals, businesses, and charities and the answers to other frequent federal government tax questions.
Social Security Online
(http://www.ssa.gov/). Do you have questions or doubts about your social security? Look here first.
(Lancaster County) Real-Estate Ownership, Assessment, and Taxation
(https://orion.lancaster.ne.gov/appraisal/pubicaccess/Property-Detail/PropertyNumber/1026201011000). Find out who owns the house next door and more. Be careful that your address matches the county assessor’s listing. For example: Looking for 1234 Adams Circle will NOT produce the property that the assessor has listed as 1234 Adams Cir. However, 1234 Adams (without using “Cir” or “Circle” at the end) should produce the desired results. The best part of this site is the link to the Treasurer’s office (which can also be accessed directly).
(Lancaster County) Treasurer’s Office (https://www.lancaster.ne.gov/224/County-Treasurer). The links on this page include Motor Vehicles and Real Estate—but also includes a link to the (State of Nebraska) Unclaimed Property website.
Secretary of State’s Office (Nebraska)
(https://Nebraska.gov/sos/) requires a person to be a “registered owner” in order to use the “full” Secretary of State website. However, “non-registered users” CAN access the sub-site for corporate searches. A common use of the sub-site from the Secretary of State’s office is to determine if a business name (corporation or LLC) is registered and, if so, the official address and registered agent information. The search and basic information are free; there is a charge for copies of the Articles of Incorporation or other official documents. The specific sub-site for the corporate search is https://Nebraska.gov/sos/corp/corpsearch.cgi?nav=search.
Nebraska Unclaimed Property
(https://treasurer.Nebraska.gov/up/): This is the official site where the Nebraska treasurer lists all unclaimed property that is being held by the State of Nebraska. Search by name to see if you or someone in your family has unclaimed property.
State Specific Legal Forms
(http://www.uslegalforms.com/). Find over 36,000 different legal forms immediately.
(Nebraska) Department of Motor Vehicles
(http://www.dmv.org/). Access anything you could possibly need from local DMV.
National Weather Service
(https://www.weather.gov/) Allows you to find out about the weather anywhere in the states.
Currency Exchanges
(http://www.oanda.com/): This private site (Oanda) provides a currency converter–both current pricing and historical exchange rates are available. Though this is a privately-run site, the information is free. The site is simple to use and provides the type of information helpful for foreign travelers. Results can be printed in table or graph form. Multiple currencies can be printed at the same time.
(https://fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/treasRptRateExch/TreasRptRateExch_home.htm): This is sponsored by the U.S. Treasury and provides the “official” currency exchange rates that are required to be used for reporting foreign financial assets on the FINCEN114 forms.
U.S. Savings Bond Calculator
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/tools_savingsbondcalc.htm . This link will give you the current value of a single bond or of multiple bonds.
Non-Cash Contribution Valuations
Non-cash contributions are accepted by several charities. The allowable tax deduction is the fair market value of the item on the date donated. How to value these donations is an issue. Several websites can give you some guidance. A couple of those websites are hosted by Goodwill and by the Intuit Corporation.
For Goodwill, choose the DONATE link on the home page. Then follow the link for “Donate Stuff” to get a current valuation guide.
https://www.goodwill.org
The Its Deductible website requires you to register (as this site is maintained by Intuit). But it gives a more comprehensive listing of non-cash items. It will actually track your donated items for you to print out at year end. https://itsdeductibleonline.intuit.com
The Salvation Army website (satruck.org) no longer publishes a valuation guide.