Category: Tax Planning
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Now that you’ve filed your tax return
Now that you’ve filed your tax return, here are three simple tips that can make the next step go smoothly: 1) The IRS does not call you to verify or request information before sending your tax refund. If you receive such a call it is a scam. 2) IRS will begin sending notices to many of…
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Help for last-minute tax filers
These final 20 day of tax season can be stressful on taxpayers and tax preparers. I will work at least 14 hours a day in order to meet my own work deadlines and contribute to the workload of other tax preparers. Yet it makes sense for a young accounting practice to reserve time for new…
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Homeowner tax credits for energy efficient upgrades
Have you overlooked a small tax credit? The IRS offers two types of tax credits to homeowners in 2015 and 2016: the Residential Energy Efficiency Property Credit and the Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit. The first applies only to solar and renewable energy systems and is not discussed in this article. The second type of tax…
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America’s evolving attitudes about inheritance
When it comes to money, we are still not communicating well with family and advisers. Estate tax laws aren’t helping. A new report by Hearts and Wallets provides some fascinating insights on America’s evolving attitudes about inheritances, including: “only 27% of the parents surveyed have told their children how much they are likely to inherit”…
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Checklist of health care planning issues for financial advisers
This checklist of health care planning issues is meant for financial advisers to consider in 2016 planning: Millions of Americans people who bought their own coverage outside the exchange do not have “minimal essential coverage” (even though they think they do). This has implications for tax preparers as well as financial advisers. Millions of Americans…
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How to maximize tax savings for business owners
This post is based on a consultation I had today that echos a very common business planning theme: A successful small business owner wishes to begin a retirement savings plan to make the most efficient use of the business’ profits. The goals are simple: Maximize the owner’s account contribution, Maximize tax savings (avoid current income taxation),…
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The problem with accountants
Accountants generally enjoy a reputation as the ‘most trusted adviser’. But the problem is that we do our work, get out and move on. That work might be the income tax return, bookkeeping work, or some other well-defined engagement. General financial advice is too often an unplanned side benefit of our work. Accountants who don’t define and…
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Top ten tax saving strategies for 2016
Our U.S. federal income tax law includes a number of built-in strategies available to reduce income tax liability. Your ability to legally reduce your own income tax bill depends on your level of understanding and utilization of the opportunities available in five key areas of financial planning: Source of income and the legal format of…
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Year-end tax Scrooge on auto purchase and charitable contributions
We hear plenty of auto sales ads touting the benefits of increased depreciation as a great reason to buy a new car this week. Likewise, charities make a big year-end push this week promoting the tax benefits of charitable contributions. I don’t want to be a spoil-sport and discourage anyone from buying a car or…
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Last minute tax shelter setup for 2015
Every year there are a few small business owners who wait until the last few days of December to set up a retirement plan or pension plan that winds up reducing their tax liability by many thousands of dollars at tax filing time in the spring. It takes a few hours work for each plan…