Under the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), the federal estate-tax exemption is permanently set at $5 million with a top 40% rate. ATRA also provides for inflation indexing of the exemption, beginning in 2013. The figures for the past four years, which show a modest increase for 2016, are as follows: Year Exemption [...]
Do you own investment real estate—say, an apartment building—that you rent out to tenants? Real estate can be a valuable and reliable source of income. Of course, the rental income is subject to tax, but the resulting tax liability may be offset by deductible expenses. In some cases, you might even qualify for a loss. [...]
It’s that time of year and you want to know. Your tax return was extended and you are now preparing the return. The question is, can you still make an IRA contribution? Maybe, but generally the short answer is No. The deadline for making most IRA or Roth IRA contributions is April 15th for the [...]
What is your greatest financial fear? For some people, it is outliving their retirement savings. Besides the inherent volatility of economic markets and concerns about the viability of Social Security in the future, you may not have been able to save enough to secure a comfortable retirement. As things stand now, you may be afraid [...]
By: Kim Smith, CPA, Tax Shareholder Kim is a shareholder, a member of the JMF Tax Department and in charge of the JMF State and Local Tax (SALT) group. With over 20 years of experience, she assists clients with corporate, partnership, and individual income tax reporting as well as complex multi-state income and sales tax [...]
Paying income tax is bad enough, but insult is added to injury if you are assessed any tax penalties. There are numerous no-nos for individuals and small-business owners to avoid, but here are five of the major offenses in the tax code. 1. Payroll taxes: If a business willfully fails to deposit payroll taxes, the “responsible [...]
As evidenced by the list of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams recently released by the IRS, the tax swindlers are getting smarter every year. Here is a summary of the 12 notorious scams to watch out for in 2016. 1. Identity theft: A crook can steal your Social Security number and use it to file [...]
A buy–sell agreement can be critical to a business owner intending to sell the business interest or needing to accommodate other changes within the organization. Typically, it can help ease a transition in leadership to the younger generation. Basic concept: The buy–sell agreement protects your family’s interests in the event you become disabled or die [...]
If you are an employer, you've probably heard that there are new laws about who qualifies for overtime pay. It's been about two years in the making. The most important items to understand are: The 2016 salary threshold is $913 per week or $47,476 annually for a full-year worker. That's adjusted down slightly from earlier reports. [...]
If you have been reading the tax press or even this blog, you will know plenty about the problems taxpayers are having with phone and email scams posing as the IRS. Well, now the IRS has announced that they will stop initiating field audits by telephone. So, the examiner will send a letter and then [...]