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 [...]
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 [...]
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 ended two popular Social Security retirement benefit claiming strategies, “File-and-Suspend” and “Restricted Application.” Many married couples use the file-and-suspend strategy by having the higher wage earner file for benefits and then immediately suspend them so that the lower earning spouse can claim spousal benefits while letting their own Social [...]
The IRS has announced the standard mileage rates that may be used in 2016 instead of deducting actual expenses. The new rates, which have decreased or stayed the same, are as follows: For business driving, the rate is 54 cents per business mile (it was 57.5 cents in 2015). For medical and moving expenses, the [...]
1) Set up a file (or box) for your 2015 taxes. Put a label on it and drop in your Form W-2 and 1099s as they come in the mail. 2) Open the envelope with your JMF organizer. Please use the organizer as a guide to make sure you have everything that you had last [...]
The PATH Act includes three significant changes affecting provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The tax on high-cost Cadillac health insurance plans is delayed for two years, from 2018 to 2020. The 2.3% excise tax paid by manufacturers of medical devices is halted for 2016 and 2017. There’s a moratorium for one year—until 2017—on [...]
By: Rachel Taylor, CGMA, CPA, Tax Manager Rachel is a member of the JMF Tax Department. With more than seven years of experience in public accounting, she assists clients with corporate, partnership, and individual income tax return reporting as well as complex issues regarding multiple state filing and other state tax issues. Late on Tuesday, December [...]
As an American living overseas, each year you have to gather the information required to file a U.S. return. Unlike your compatriots, residing across the pond comes with its own process: complicated and with more risk and penalties. The following article sheds light on the expat, tax forms you will need in order to file your return. This is the [...]
Linda Wang of the United States Department of Agriculture has created a summary of the newest tax laws related to timber. Tax laws on timber transactions are very specialized knowledge that are not commonly known. Yet they are important to timber owners in terms of the ongoing cost of owning and managing timber, forest stewardship [...]