Insight
Health Savings Account – The Dark Horse Retirement Account
If you have the option of a Health Savings Account (HSA) at work and are not enrolled, you should really consider it. You may have heard about some of the benefits. The primary benefit is that you can use tax-free money to pay for qualified medical expenses. The...
03 August, 2018New Federal Tax Law – Individual Changes
The new tax law took effect January 1, 2018. Barring legislative changes, it will be with us through tax year 2025. Here is a summary of changes that will affect you. ___________________________________________________________________________ Here are the new federal tax brackets For Single Filers: Taxable income...
09 January, 2018New Federal Tax Law – Business Tax Changes
The new tax law that took effect January 1, 2018 has implications for nearly all businesses. Some new rules were added and some of the old rules and/or deductions were taken away. Here is a summary of changes that are specific to different business types...
09 January, 2018Kansas Raises Income Taxes
On June 6th, 2017, the Kansas legislature overrode the governor’s veto to pass a large income tax increase that is retroactive to January 1, 2017. Here are the quick points related to income taxes: Taxable income from sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, and S corporations is...
22 June, 2017Want Your Kid to Fund a Roth IRA Super Early?
Are you a hyper-advocate of the Roth IRA? Do you wish your 13-year-old or ambitious second grader could put money into one of those accounts? Well, she just might be able to contribute to a Roth IRA starting now. As a refresher, a Roth IRA...
31 May, 2017New Business Tax Return Due Dates For Partnerships and C Corporations
The federal government have changed the due dates for all federal partnership and nearly all C corporation tax returns. The partnership return due date moves up from April 15th to March 15th. The due date for C corporation tax return is pushed back from March...
29 November, 2016Forms W-3/W-2s & 1096/1099s Sent To The Feds are Now Due January 31, 2017
The due date of a W-2 or a 1099 to the employee/contractor has always been January 31st of the following year. But, forms W-3/W-2s and the forms 1096/1099s that are sent to the Social Security Administration to report the income have been due at the...
29 November, 2016Work Opportunity Tax Credit Extended Through 2019
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) has been expanded and extended through 2019. To get the credit a business needs to hire a qualifying employee. Qualifying employees are those individuals hired from 2016 – 2019 and who have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks. ...
29 November, 2016Business Start-up Expenses are Deductible
If you are thinking of taking the plunge and starting a business, here is some good news. Up to $5,000 of your start-up expenses are deductible in the first year of operations. These expenses would include expenses to investigate the venture and many costs that...
19 August, 2016Own Publicly Traded Partnership Investments in a Retirement Account
Over the last several years partnerships that are publicly traded have become very popular. The allure of the large “dividends” have made the investors flock to them. There are a lot of these investment vehicles in the mid-stream oil and gas space like Enterprise Product...
18 August, 2016Medicare Part B Premiums Are Going Up for New Enrollees in 2016
If you are going to file for Medicare Part B benefits in 2016 you will probably pay more in premiums than your friends that are currently enrolled and receiving benefits. New enrollees will pay $121.80 per month while the currently enrolled will continue to pay...
29 April, 20162015 Tax Extenders Passed With Great Tax Benefits
Congress has finally added some sensibility to their law-passing process and made permanent several key tax benefits for individuals and small businesses which are available for 2015. Here is a list of the relevant tax benefits: 1) The Section 179 deduction has been permanently extended. ...
21 December, 2015What is an S Corp?
An S Corporation is a corporation under the laws of a state that is taxed like a partnership. Essentially, it acts just like a normal C corporation with one big exception. The main difference is that all of the profits and losses are not taxed...
29 October, 2015Make sure to name a beneficiary on your IRA.
Saving money in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is a great way create an estate for your heirs at the same time savings on taxes. The money gets to growth tax-deferred until the day you or your heirs distribute some or all of the funds....
23 October, 2015Benefits “Excepted” from the Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) took a painful leap in 2014 and destroyed the mainstay of how small businesses have provided health care coverage to employees for decades. In the recent past, an employer would simply reimburse an employee for his or her health insurance...
23 October, 2015When should you file for social security benefits?
To answer this question requires a lot of personal information and an understanding of your goals in order to maximize the potential benefits to be paid out over your lifetime. First of all, are you married? To make sure you get the optimal payout you...
23 October, 2015Business Sense: The Gross Margin Percentage
If you are a would-be small business owner you probably want to pay attention. Today I would like to define and discuss the Gross Margin Percentage (GM%). Basically, it is total sales minus cost of the total sales divided by the total sales times 100....
09 September, 2015Tax-free Rental Income
No this is not some infomercial trick or radio enticement to drag you to a special course that has ‘limited seating’ so call now. Plain as day in section 280A(g) of the US internal revenue code lies a way to rent your own residence and...
29 June, 2015When can you deduct a home office?
So, how is it that people can take a home office deduction on their tax returns? There are two times that I would like to discuss. But first, some ground rules to qualify this article. You cannot use it for tax advice as there are...
06 May, 2015Are you maxing out your 401K? When not to?
One of the easiest ways to lower your taxable income in a given year is to increase your 401K contributions. When you contribute to your tax-deferred retirement account you get to take a deduction right off the top of your taxable income. Since we live...
29 April, 2015
