Taxes: Uncle Sam Offers Help
Congress passed some bi-partisan tax relief recently – things of which you may be able to take advantage: Casualty losses deductible for more than $500 are more readily deductible, and can be taken against your 2016 or 2017 income – i.e. use it against the highest rate Up to $2,400 tax credit (even better than a special deduction) of wages paid to workers unable to come to work when the business was closed (“rendered inoperable”) due to the hurricane 50% limit on individual contributions and corporate 10% limit of taxable income suspended 10% penalty on retirement plan withdrawals is waived Up to $100,000 can be borrowed from retirement plans And more. Read more…
Taxes: Hiring Your Kids to Reduce Taxes
What better way as a business owner to teach your kids about the business, build a sense of responsibility – and save taxes to boot? (Not to mention keep them busy over the summer) By hiring them in the business (they must do real, age appropriate work), you can shift some income to them at a tax rate of 0%. Hmmm, honey, maybe we should have a couple more, eh? Forbes: Tax Benefits For Hiring Your Own Child
Taxes: Tax Scams Continue
In spite of lots of press and a 60 Minutes feature story in the past year, tax scams, identity theft, IRS impersonations, and more are alive and well in 2016. Don’t be caught! The IRS will never email you or call you to collect taxes. And if you’re identity (Social Security number) is compromised, you’ll need to send the IRS an affidavit and ID’s in order to file your taxes. Here’s the latest direct from the IRS: IRS.gov: Tax Scams Consumer Alert
Taxes: Top 10 Ways to Avoid an Audit
Yep, it’s that time of the year when the focus turns on the annual ritual of tax return preparation. One of the biggest compliance tools the IRS has is fear of the audit. There are things that will help avoid or, if called upon, survive that dreaded income tax audit: Entrepreneur: The Top 10 Ways to Avoid an IRS or State Audit.
Taxes: Tax Scams
If you caught 60 Minutes a few weeks back (a rerun from September 2014), you were troubled to hear how easy it was for criminals to get names and social security numbers to use in tax scams. Some will pose as IRS agents in a phone call scam, some will file an early return for the refund, and other scams may resort to email. Read more at: IRS: Phone Tax Scams 2015
Image credit: Identity Thief (2013) Taxes: IRS Identity Breach
Last month the IRS acknowledged that more than 100,000 taxpayer ID’s had been illegally accessed. The thieves apparently looked to take advantage of people filing later by filing returns early with the taxpayer ID’s and having refunds sent to a different address. The means of the theft wasn’t a high tech hacking but a low-tech information gathering. Call us immediately if you have concerns, and learn more details here: Forbes: IRS says identity thieves accessed tax transcripts for more than 100,000 taxpayers
Image credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Taxes: What to Expect From the New Congress
It’s been an interesting election season, and its resolution begs the question of the future with no partisan control split in the legislative branch. There have been some themes and ideas floated for over a year, but squabbles between House and Senate meant inaction. What now? Hopefully lower rates, another reason to defer income into 2015. Motley Fool: Tax Reform: What to Expect From the New Congress
Taxes: Just Decide Something, D@#n It
With the year-end looming there are tax decisions to make, but strategic ones as well need to be made to drive your business for the next five years. Waffling is for breakfast, not business. Fast Company: Decisiveness Generates Momentum
Taxes: Taxes Taxes Taxes
Election results are in – and we’re back to the future. Split control of the government – which means no control by any particular side, and slow deliberate change. With this election we can be pretty sure that the tax policies enacted in the last several years that were leading up to 2013 will not change in the near term. Plan accordingly. Based on current law, here are changes effective January 1, 2013 that you need to be thinking about. Read more…
Image credit: Fast Company Taxes: Healthy Risk Taking
Why Thomas Edison would not have lasted in today’s business environment. Could “he” be one of your employees? Fast Company: Failure Is The Only Option, If Success Is The End Goal
