Year-End Tax Planning As the end of the year approaches, there is still time to make moves to manage your tax liability. Here are some ideas to consider. Maximize your retirement plan contributions. This includes traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and SEP IRAs for self-employed. Given the contribution limits in 2017 are not increasing, now is…
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College Aid Financial Package (FAFSA) Timing Annual FAFSA filing availability is now If you have a child in college or entering college during the next school year, you need to read this. The time to apply for federal financial aid is now. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is now available for the…
2017 Social Security Wage Base The Social Security Administration (SSA) released updated information about payroll taxes on Tuesday, October 18, 2016. Individuals earning above $118,500 in wages should expect to have more money taken out in payroll taxes in 2017. For 2017, up to $127,200 of wages will be taxable for social security. This…
Recovering from Identity Theft There are now millions of victims of the identity theft epidemic. From stolen credit cards to fraudulently filed tax returns, a vast swath of the U.S. is trying to figure out how to repair the damage. To help, the Federal Trade Commission has created a nice tool to work through the…
Preview of Some Key 2017 Tax Figures While official numbers for 2017 are not yet released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), many figures are based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the Department of Labor. Using the release of recent CPI figures, a number of sources are projecting key figures for…
September 30, 2016
Curt
Health Savings Account Basics A Health Savings Account (HSA) is one of the best deals in the tax code. Money that is put in to an HSA is deductible from your income in the year contributed similar to an IRA or 401k. The big advantage is that distributions from an HSA are not included in…
August 9, 2016
Curt
Charitable Donations from Your IRA Can you take advantage? One of the temporary tax provisions made permanent as part of the tax code in late 2015 is qualified charitable distributions from IRAs for those who have reached age 70½. Unfortunately in 2014 and 2015, the law was extended too late during the calendar year to…
Have you ever wondered the chances of the IRS selecting your return for an Audit?There are other factors that influence whether or not your return is selected, but here is a basic breakdown (from our newsletter) by income level of who is selected for audits:
The DoL has issued new rules for overtime that go in to effect on December 1, 2016. Overtime rules are regulated in the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act). The FLSA provides exemptions from paying overtime to employees who meet all three the following three tests: Salary-level test: Employees must make above a certain threshold to…
Each year the IRS announces “Dirty Dozen Tax Scams” they encounter regarding frivolous tax arguments and fraud. While six of the “scams” are related to, “don’t cheat we have our eyes on you,” the other six are scams that all of us should be on guard to detect. Identity theft. Identity theft tops the list…