Tax Information

Check out page 1 of your 2019 Form 1040 Individual income tax return and you will find the terms Taxable Income, Total Income and Adjusted Gross Income. This blog breaks down each one and shows how they are related to one another. What is Taxable Income? Taxable Income has two definitions in this blog. The…

Taxpayers are subject to a wide variety of tax rates. Common examples include income, sales, property and capital gains. This blog focuses on capital gains tax rates. There are two different time frames involved with capital gains: short term and long term. Short term applies to assets held for one year or less. The rate…

Do I Have to File a Tax Return? Article Highlights: When You Are Required to File Self-Employed Taxpayers Filing Thresholds Benefits of Filing Even When Not Required to File Refundable Tax Credits This is a question many taxpayers ask during this time of year, and the question is far more complicated than people believe. To…

Your taxes contain an array of sensitive information, from financial data to your Social Security number or tax ID number. Because of this, there are many scams that unsavory characters attempt to perpetrate by impersonating the IRS or another tax authority. It can be difficult to tell when the IRS is really seeking information versus…

Article Highlights: Taxability of Distributions Stretching Distributions SECURE Act Changes Ten-Year Rule Spouse Exception Other Exceptions Naming Beneficiaries On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Appropriations Act of 2020, which included a number of tax law changes, including extending certain tax provisions that expired after 2017 or were about to expire, a…

Article Highlights: COVID-19 Tax Benefits Retirement Plan Withdrawals Waiver of 10% Early Withdrawal Penalty Retirement Plan Loans Roth IRAs Other Sources of Income Way to Reduce Payments If you are struggling financially due to the COVID-19 epidemic, you will be happy to know Congress, as part of the CARES Act enacted on March 27, has…

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on all aspects of American businesses, but perhaps none have been as severely affected as small business owners. Surviving this disaster will require more than just time: you will need to take a pragmatic view of what has happened and what steps you are willing and able to take…

You know that long list of ways that the coronavirus has affected our lives? Well, here’s another one. The Internal Revenue Service has completely flipped a switch on its priorities, and it is not even looking at paper tax returns that are being sent to it. The idea of all those envelopes piling up somewhere…

Article Highlights Traditional IRA Roth IRA Selecting the IRA Type for You Penalties Conversions Spousal IRAs Retirement Distributions The tax code offers two types of IRAs; one is referred to as the traditional individual retirement account (IRA), so named because it was the first type of IRA available, having been created by Congress back in…

Article Highlights 24/7 Access Quick Posting Direct Deposit Necessary Information If you have already filed your federal tax return and are due to receive a refund, you can check the status of your refund online. Where’s My Refund? is an interactive tool on the IRS website. Regardless of whether you have split your refund among several…