Article Highlights: Watch Out for Charity ScamsTax Exempt Organization Search ToolTax Benefits of Charitable ContributionsBunching DeductionsQualified Charitable DistributionsSubstantiation As the end of the year and the holiday season approach, we will all see an uptick in the number of charitable solicitations arriving in our mailboxes and by email. Since some charities sell their contributor lists [...]
Article Highlights: Health InsuranceRetirement PlansQualified Transportation Fringe BenefitsFlexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)Group Term Life InsuranceQualified Employee DiscountsEmployer-Provided Education AssistanceAdoption ExpensesChild and Dependent Care BenefitsHealth Savings Accounts Tax law includes a number of tax- and financially favored benefits that employers can offer or provide to their employees. This article is intended to make you aware of these [...]
Article Highlights Improvements for Medical Care or TreatmentImprovements That Increase the Home's ValueImprovements That Do Not Increase the Home's ValueMedical AGI Limitations While Americans may argue about any number of hot-button political topics, there's no disagreement on one issue: the country's population is aging...fast. According to the Social Security Administration, 10,000 baby boomers a day [...]
Article Highlights: American Opportunity Tax CreditLifetime Learning CreditWho Gets the Credit?Qualified Tuition and Related ExpensesEligible Educational InstitutionsForm 1098-TScholarshipsTax Fraud As with everything taxes, the devil is in the details, and that includes the education tax credits, which come in two types with some different rules for each. Many people think the credits are for sending [...]
Tax problems aren't just a worry that hang over people's heads from January through April every year. Many of them go far beyond the numbers that you report, and they can require additional evidence that your bank statements and paychecks can't provide. Additionally, the IRS isn't the only source of those problems: state tax authorities [...]
Article Highlights: Taxpayer First ActTaxpayer Notification when a SSN is Fraudulently UsedPurpose of an IP PINObtaining an IP PINIs an IP PIN Right for You? With the passage of the Taxpayer First Act in mid-2019, the Treasury Department (i.e., the IRS) is required to establish a program to issue an identity protection pin (IP PIN) [...]
Effective January 1, 2020, California residents must obtain minimum essential health care coverage to avoid the new California individual health care mandate penalty enacted by SB 78 (Ch. 19-38). Generally speaking, an individual who fails to secure coverage will be subject to an annual penalty of $695 or more when they file their 2020 California [...]
Let's face it: A lot of personal finance advice seems to be incredibly repetitive and common sense — like paying off your debt ASAP and watching your discretionary spending when money is tight. Much money-saving advice also tends to be geared toward people who already have money and those more concerned about avoiding the taxman than bill [...]
Article Highlights: Itemized DeductionsAbove-the-Line DeductionsBusiness DeductionsAsset-Sale DeductionsRefundable CreditsNonrefundable CreditsCarryover CreditsBusiness Tax Credits People often say that an expense is “a tax write-off”; most everyone interprets this to mean that the expense will have a tax benefit. Generally, such a benefit takes the form of either a deduction or a credit; these benefits’ effects are quite [...]
Article Highlights: Required Minimum Distribution RequirementsComputing Required Minimum DistributionRoth IRAsStill Working ExceptionUnder-Distribution PenaltyIRA to Charity TransfersBeneficiaries If you are age 70-1/2 or older and have a traditional IRA, a 401(k), or a SEP IRA, the tax law requires you to take at least a minimum amount – referred to as the required minimum distribution (RMD) [...]
