Chuck Woodson | TaxConnections

12 Apr 2019

Tax Treatment Renting A Room In Your Home

With the shortage of affordable housing these days, many homeowners are renting out rooms in their homes, providing themselves with some additional cash. Questions that are often raised in regard to room rentals include: Is the income taxable? If so, how is it reported? What deductions are allowed? Can a loss be claimed? Answers to these questions follow.

If a taxpayer rents rooms or other space in a home and the rented portion does not have facilities (a bathroom and a kitchen) that would make it a dwelling unit on its own, the taxpayer and the renter may be considered to be occupying one dwelling unit. Thus, the “landlord” is mixing personal expenses with business expenses, a situation in which the tax code does not permit a loss.

As a result, the income and expenses are treated under the same rules as vacation home rentals and are reported on Schedule E, with prorated expenses deductible against the rental income in a specific order and no loss being allowed.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Taxes And Renting A Room

03 Apr 2019

Tax Benefits For Members Of The Military

Military members benefit from a variety of special tax benefits. These include certain non-taxable allowances, non-taxable combat pay, and a variety of other special tax provisions. Here is a rundown on the most prominent of the tax benefits.

Service Member Residence or Domicile – A frequent question by service members is “What is my state of residence for tax purposes?” since one’s duty station may change multiple times while serving. Luckily, the government passed a law to solve this issue. A service member continues to retain his or her home state of residence for tax purposes, even when required to move to another state under military orders. This also applies to other tax jurisdictions within a state, such as for city, county, and personal property taxes. Thus, a service member will continue to file tax returns for his or her home state and not the state where he or she is stationed.

Service Member Spouse’s Residence or Domicile – In order to simplify the tax-filing requirements of military couples, the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act of 2009 allowed military spouses to claim the same state of domicile as their service member for tax purposes, provided they had also established domicile there.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Tax Benefits For Military

29 Mar 2019

Tax Reform Muted The AMT: Holders Of Incentive Stock Options

Although Congress, as part of the recent tax reform, promised to do away with the alternative minimum tax (AMT), it only did so for C corporations; as a result, the AMT still applies to individuals.

Congress originally developed the AMT in 1969 as a means to prevent high-income individuals from using tax shelters to reduce their taxes. For the AMT, federal income tax is calculated without certain deductions and tax preferences. This tax applies if it is greater than the regularly computed income tax. Although it has since been indexed to inflation, the AMT at one point began to apply to middle-income taxpayers, who are not the intended targets of this punitive tax.

The AMT computation includes a tax-exempt amount, but this amount begins to phase out for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeds a certain threshold (depending on their filing status). Although the tax reform did not eliminate the AMT, it did mute that tax considerably by increasing the AMT exemptions and by substantially raising the exemption-phaseout thresholds, as illustrated below. The exemptions and AGI phaseout thresholds will be inflation-adjusted in future years.
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Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Incentive Stock Options

27 Mar 2019

Court Of Appeals Rules For Clergy’s Expenses

Charles Woodson - Court Rules On Clergy Expenses

If you read our previous article related to a Wisconsin District Court ruling, you will recall that the judge in that case had ruled that Sec. 107(2) of the Internal Revenue Code was unconstitutional.

Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code provides that a minister’s gross income doesn’t include the rental value of a home provided by the house of worship. If the home itself isn’t provided, then a rental allowance paid as part of compensation for ministerial services is excludable. This benefit is generally referred to as a parsonage allowance. Thus, a minister can exclude the fair rental value (FRV) of the parsonage from income under IRC Sec. 107(1), or the rental allowance under Sec. 107(2), for income tax purposes. The Sec. 107(2) rental allowance is excludable only to the extent that it is for expenses such as rent, mortgage payments, utilities, repairs, etc., used in providing the minister’s main home, and only up to the amount of the home’s FRV.

Good news for clergy members: a 3-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously overturned the lower court’s decision and ruled that Sec. 107 is constitutional; therefore, housing allowances continue to be excludable from income tax.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Clergy Tax Benefits • TaxConnections

21 Mar 2019

Tax Tips For Individual Retirement Account Owners

There are both opportunities and pitfalls for IRA owners, and while you definitely don’t want to get caught up in a pitfall, you may want to take advantage of the opportunities. IRAs come in two varieties: the traditional and the Roth. The traditional generally provides a tax deduction for a contribution and tax-deferred accumulation, with distributions being taxable. On the other hand, there is no tax deduction for making a Roth contribution, but the distributions are tax-free.

So, it leaves taxpayers with a significant decision, with long-term consequences of whether to contribute to traditional or Roth IRA. If you can afford to make the contributions without a tax deduction, then the Roth IRA is probably the better choice in most circumstances. However, some high-income restrictions limit the deductibility of a traditional IRA and the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA.

Pitfalls – Here are some of the pitfalls that can be encountered with IRAs:

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Tax Tips For IRAs

13 Mar 2019

Be Tax Wise With Your Charitable Contributions

Charles Woodson - Charitable Contributions

Donations to charities can be deducted as an itemized deduction on your tax return. This means that to achieve any tax benefit from your charitable donations, you cannot use the standard deduction and instead must itemize your deductions. However, if the total of all your itemized deductions does not exceed the standard deduction amount for the year, then you are better off taking the standard deduction, but in doing so, you will get no tax benefit from your charitable contributions.

As a rule, most taxpayers just wait until tax time to add up their potential deductions and then use the higher of the standard deduction or their itemized deductions. If you want to be more proactive, here are some strategies that might work for you.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Charitable Contributions

08 Mar 2019

Defer Gains With Qualified Opportunity Funds

If you have a large capital gain from the sale of a stock, asset, or business and would like to defer that gain with the possibility of excluding some of it from taxation, you may want to check out the new investment vehicle created by tax reform, called a qualified opportunity fund (QOF).

Congress, as a means of helping communities that have not recovered from the past decade’s economic downturn, included a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act intended to promote investments in certain economically distressed communities through QOFs. Investments in QOFs provide unique tax incentives that lawmakers designed to encourage taxpayers to participate in these funds.

Reinvesting Gains – Taxpayers who have a capital gain from selling or exchanging any non-QOF property to an unrelated party may elect to defer that gain if it is reinvested in a QOF within 180 days of the sale or exchange. Only one election may be made with respect to a given sale or exchange. If the taxpayer reinvests less than the full amount of the gain in the QOF, the remainder is taxable in the sale year, as usual. Only the gain need be reinvested in a QOF, not the entire proceeds from the sale. This is in sharp contrast to a 1031 exchange where the entire proceeds must be reinvested to defer the gain.
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Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Qualified Opportunity Funds

06 Mar 2019

Checking The Status Of Your Federal Tax Refund Is Easy

If your 2018 federal return has already been filed and you are due a refund, you can check the status of your refund online.

“Where’s My Refund?” is an interactive tool on the IRS website at IRS.gov. Whether you have opted for direct deposit into one account, split your refund among several accounts, or asked the IRS to mail you a check, “Where’s My Refund?” will give you online access to your refund information nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you e-file, you can get refund information within 24 hours after the IRS has acknowledged receipt of your return. Generally, refunds for e-filed returns are issued within 21 days. If you file a paper return, your refund information will be available within four weeks. When checking the status of your refund, have your federal tax return handy. To access your personalized refund information, you must enter:

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Tax Refund

05 Mar 2019

Consider These Options To Pay Your Federal Taxes

Charles Woodson- Ways To Pay Federal Taxes

If you aren’t one of those lucky Americans who gets a tax refund from the IRS, you might be wondering how you go about paying your balance due. Here are some electronic and manual payment options that you can use to pay your federal income tax:

Electronic Funds Withdrawal – You can pay using funds from your bank account when your tax return is e-filed. There is no charge by the IRS for using this payment method, and payment can be arranged by your tax return preparer, allowing for e-filing of your return and submitting an electronic funds withdrawal request at the same time.
Direct Pay – You can schedule and make a payment directly from your checking or savings account using IRS Direct Pay. There is no fee for this service, and you will receive an e-mail notification when the funds have been withdrawn. Payments, including estimated tax payments, can be scheduled up to 30 days in advance. You can change or cancel the payment up to two business days before the scheduled payment date.
Electronic Federal Tax Payment System – This is a more sophisticated version of the IRS’s Direct Pay that allows not only federal income tax but also employment, estimated and excise tax payments to be made over the Internet or by phone from your bank account, with a robust authentication process to ensure the security of the site and your private information. This is a free service. Payments, which can be scheduled up to 365 days in advance, can be changed or cancelled up to two days prior to the scheduled payment date. You can use IRS Form 9783 to enroll in the system or enroll at EFTPS.gov – but do so well in advance of the date when a payment is due because the government will use U.S. mail to send you a personal identification number (PIN), which you will need to access your EFTPS account.
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Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in TaxConnections

26 Feb 2019

It’s Not Too Late To Make A 2018 Retirement-Plan Contribution

Have you been ignoring your future retirement needs? This tends to happen when people are young; because retirement is far in the future, they believe that they have plenty of time to save for it. Some people even ignore the issue until late in life, which causes them to scramble to fund their retirement. Others even ignore the issue altogether, assuming that they will qualify for Social Security and that the resulting income will take care of their retirement needs.

Did you know that you can make retirement savings contributions after the close of the tax year and that these contributions may be deductible? With the April tax deadline in the near future, the window of opportunity is closing to maximize contributions to retirement and special-purpose plans for 2018. Many of these retirement contributions will also deliver tax deductions or tax credits for the 2018 tax year.

Contribution Opportunities – Some 2018 retirement contributions are available after the close of the year.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Retirement Plan Contributions

20 Feb 2019

Filing A 1099-MISC May Now Apply To Landlords. Are You Collecting The Needed W-9s?

If you use independent contractors to perform services for your business or your rental that is a trade or business, for each individual whom you pay $600 or more for the year, you are required to issue the service provider and the IRS a Form 1099-MISC after the end of the year, to avoid losing the deduction for their labor and expenses. (This requirement generally does not apply to payments made to a corporation. However, the exception does not extend to payments made for attorney fees and for certain payments for medical or health care services.)

It is not uncommon to have a repairman out early in the year, pay him less than $600, then use his services again later and have the total for the year exceed the $600 limit. As a result, you might overlook getting the information needed to file the 1099s for the year. Therefore, it is good practice to always have individuals who are not incorporated complete and sign the IRS Form W-9 the first time you use their services. Having a properly completed and signed Form W-9 for all independent contractors and service providers will eliminate any oversights and protect you against IRS penalties and conflicts.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Landlords And W2s

14 Feb 2019

Tax Reform Has Substantially Altered The Tax Benefits Of Home Ownership

Charles Woodson - Home Ownership And Tax Reform

As part of the recent tax reform, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the deduction for home mortgage interest and property taxes has undergone substantial alterations. These changes will impact most homeowners who itemize their deductions each year.

Mortgage Interest – Prior to the tax reform, a taxpayer could deduct the interest he or she paid on up to $1 million of acquisition debt and $100,000 of equity debt secured by the taxpayer’s primary home and/or designated second home. This interest was claimed as an itemized deduction on Schedule A of the homeowner’s tax return. This tax deduction was often cited as one of the reasons to purchase a home, rather than renting a place to live.

Qualified home acquisition debt is debt incurred to purchase, construct, or substantially improve a taxpayer’s primary home or second home and is secured by the home.

Home equity debt is debt that is not acquisition debt and that is secured by the taxpayer’s primary home or second home, but only the interest paid on up to $100,000 of equity debt had been deductible as home mortgage interest. In the past, homeowners have used home equity as a piggy bank to purchase a new car, finance a vacation, or pay off credit card debt or other personal loans – all situations in which the interest on a consumer loan obtained for these purposes wouldn’t have been deductible.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Tax Reform And Home Ownership