Author: Tony Novak
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What the heck is a 501(k) plan?
The financial services industry has a long history of creating new marketing terms to help sell its products. Certainly this is a productive and useful part of consumer financial service communications. The latest term gathering attention is a “501(k) plan”. The increased use of this term coincides with marketing of an already existing alternate tool…
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Tax Savings 101
An introduction to the topic of tax planning in 6 easy points: Saving taxes doesn’t just happen by accident. It takes deliberate long-term financial planning with a goal, action plan and accountability. Everyone has the ability to legally reduce their taxes. The higher your taxes, the greater the potential to save money. Tax planning is…
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When should we file ‘Married Filing Separately’?
Only about 1 in 50 taxpayers chooses to file tax returns as “Married Filing Separately” so it has not been a popular option. For most married couples this would raise the total amount of tax due. There are exceptions. Those who do file separately typically save money doing so, and that’s why these choose it.…
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Questionnaire to determine the potential to save taxes
My business adviser, a data scientist, asked me to compile a list of questions necessary to determine the tax saving potential of an individual person. The intent is to keep the list as short as possible but allow us to calculate an estimate of the amount of tax savings that are possible through comprehensive financial…
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#IRSFails
In this blog I’ve occasionally written about the extraordinary level of difficulty I’ve experienced resolving clients’ tax matters with IRS. Most recently posts like “Fun and Games With the IRS” and “Today’s adventures with IRS” attempt to document serious service deficiencies in a lighthearted and almost comical blog post. Today CPA Trendines covers the same…
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Seven things you can do to help disarm the U.S.
It is possible to simultaneously support the 2nd amendment and disarmament. The world is changing at an increasing rate. This is called the “age of accelerations”. Unfortunately our government, our laws, and public attitude is not keeping pace with this rapid pace of change in a way that allows up to effectively process and deal…
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The Impact of “Funny Numbers”
Will the ‘tone at the top’ trigger an increase in tax fraud? There are a few topics that I don’t talk about or write about in this blog. It’s usually because they are some combination of distasteful, unethical. illegal, immoral, controversial and a ‘no-win’ situation. One of those topics is accounting fraud. I covered the…
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2nd amendment repeal: political mission impossible
1) The US Constitution did not intend to protect the rights of mentally deranged individuals to own modern weapons with massive firepower. 2) The only possible way to effectively address gun violence is to repeal the second amendment. Anything else is a band-aid. 3) I have been a NRA member and gun owner but now…
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Four steps to cut income taxes
A successful tax reduction plan typically involves the same four steps for every person who tackles this aspect of financial planning. The rewards for taking on the financial goal of ending or reducing income taxes are substantial; wealth accumulates exponentially faster without the drag of taxes. Yet relatively few incorporate comprehensive tax planning into their…
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After an audit: don’t let IRS scare you away from proper deductions
This seems to be an increasingly common scenario: IRS audits a self-prepared tax return and discovers errors taken on deductions1. The taxpayer is assessed additional taxes and penalties. This increases the probability that the following year’s tax return will be audited for the same issues. On the following year the taxpayer typically takes one of three…