Tax Provisions for 2020 As we close out the year and get ready for tax season, here's what individuals and families need to know about tax provisions for 2020. Personal Exemptions Personal exemptions are eliminated for tax years 2018 through 2025. Standard Deductions The standard deduction for married couples filing a joint return in 2020 is $24,800. For singles and married individuals filing separately, it is $12,400, and for heads of household, the deduction is $18,650. The additional...
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Tax Tips for November 2020
Click on the links below to jump to each section in this article: Seasonal Workers and the Healthcare Law Tips for Taxpayers: Backup Withholding Tax-Related Items To Keep in Mind When Disaster Strikes Individual Retirement Arrangements: Terms To Know Seasonal Workers and the Healthcare Law Businesses often need to hire workers on a seasonal or part-time basis. For example, some businesses may need seasonal help for holidays, harvest seasons, commercial fishing, or sporting events....
Investing in Opportunity Zones: The Facts
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included numerous changes for businesses and individuals. One of these was the creation of the Opportunity Zones tax incentive, the purpose of which is to spur economic development and job creation in distressed communities by providing tax benefits to investors. Which Communities Qualify as Opportunity Zones? Low-income communities and certain contiguous communities qualify as Opportunity Zones if a state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory nominated them...
Year-End Tax Planning Strategies for Business Owners
Several end-of-year tax planning strategies are available to business owners that can be used to reduce their tax liability. Let's take a look: Deferring Income Businesses using the cash method of accounting can defer income into 2021 by delaying end-of-year invoices so that payment is not received until 2021. Businesses using the accrual method can defer income by postponing the delivery of goods or services until January 2021. Purchase New Business Equipment Bonus Depreciation. Businesses...
Individual Taxpayers: Year-End Tax Planning Strategies
With the end of the year fast approaching, now is the time to take a closer look at tax planning strategies you can use to minimize your tax burden for 2020. General Tax Planning Strategies General tax planning strategies for individuals include accelerating or deferring income and deductions, as well as careful consideration of timing-related tax planning strategies concerning investments, charitable gifts, and retirement planning. For example, taxpayers might consider using one or more of...
Tax Preparation vs. Tax Planning
Many people assume tax planning is the same as tax preparation, but the two are quite different. Let's take a closer look: What is Tax Preparation? Tax preparation is the process of preparing and filing a tax return. Generally, it is a one-time event that culminates in signing your return and finding out whether you owe the IRS money or will be receiving a refund. For most people, tax preparation involves one or two trips to your accountant (CPA), generally around tax time (i.e., between...
Choosing a Retirement Destination: Tax Considerations
With health care, housing, food, and transportation costs increasing every year, many retirees on fixed incomes wonder how they can stretch their dollars even further. One solution is to move to another state where income taxes are lower than the one in which they currently reside. While federal tax rates are the same in every state, retirees may find that even if they move to a state with no income tax, there may be additional taxes they're liable for including sales taxes, excise taxes,...
Taking Early Withdrawals From Retirement Accounts
While taking money out of a retirement fund before age 59 1/2 is usually not recommended, in certain cases, it may be unavoidable, especially during times of economic crisis. If you need cash and have a retirement fund you can tap, here's what you need to know. Background When retirement plans such as the 401(k) were introduced, company pensions were still the norm. Today, however, very few companies offer pensions anymore and most people rely entirely on social security and whatever savings...
Tax Treatment of Virtual Currency Transactions
Whether you’ve invested in Bitcoin and sold it at a profit or loss or received it for services performed, you’ll need to report it on your tax return. Prior to 2014, there was no IRS guidance and many people did not understand that selling virtual currency was a reportable transaction. They may have found themselves with a hefty tax bill — money they were hard-pressed to come up with at tax time. Others were unaware that they needed to report their transactions at all or failed to do so because it seemed too complicated.
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Tax Tips for October 2020
Under the Affordable Care Act, certain employers – known as applicable large employers – are subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions. You might be thinking about these topics as you make plans about 2021 health coverage for your employees.
If you are an employer that is subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions, you may choose either to offer affordable minimum essential coverage that provides minimum value to your full-time employees and their dependents or to potentially owe an employer shared responsibility payment to the IRS.
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