Many tax professionals like the ability to transfer their home into their office, since it allows for greater flexibility of time. There are also tax benefits when somebody sets apart a place in their home to create a home office. This post from MileIQ www.mileiq.com/taxpros) gives us the tax benefits and requirements for establishing a home office in order to apply for the tax deduction on business miles from the IRS.
This article will discuss the requirements to claim a relative as a dependent, items considered as support and items not considered as support. It also discusses multiple support agreements.
Requirements for claiming an exemption. ALL of the following must be met or the exemption will be disallowed by the IRS.
If you own your own business, your tax obligations likely do not end with the IRS. There are other tax agencies looking to put the bite on you as well. Small business owners can cut their taxes by taking various tax deductions. Be sure you don’t pay more taxes than you need to by being aware of the overlooked tax considerations for small business.
Last spring, I become a relatively involved with St. Peter’s Stewardship Committee out here in Greenwood Village, Colorado. With membership ranks and pledged donations struggling, my wife and I developed a plan to drill down into several aspects of charitable giving and report findings along the way.
In order for alimony payments made under pretrial order to be deductible (for Adjusted Gross Income) and taxable to the ex-spouse, the following conditions must be met:
(1) Payments must be made in cash
(2) Payments are received under a divorce or separate maintenance court decree
(3) The divorce or separation agreement does not designate the payment as something other than alimony (for example, a property settlement)
(4) The payer spouse and recipient spouse are not members of the same household at the time the payments are made
(5) There is no requirement to make the payments after the payer or recipient’s death.
For tax purposes, alimony is a payment to a spouse or former spouse under a divorce or separation agreement. It does not included voluntary payments outside the scope of the agreement. The payer may deduct alimony, and it is taxable income to the recipient.
There are nine requirements that must be met for the payments to be characterized as alimony:
Payments are required by a divorce or separation agreement
Payer and recipient do not file a joint return
Payment is in cash (check or money order)
Non-cash property settlements, community income, or upkeep or use of the payers property are not alimony
The agreement does not specify that it is not alimony Read More
The basic amount for single taxpayers is $6,300, married filing joint and surviving spouse $12,600, married filing separate $6,300 (zero if one spouse itemizes because on separate returns both spouses must either itemize or use the standard deduction), and head of household $9,250. The additional standard deduction is $1,550 for singles and head of household, $1,250 for married filing joint and surviving spouse. The standard deduction for those claimed as a dependent on another return can’t exceed the lesser of (1) $6,300 or (2) the greater of $1,050 plus earned income. Read More
A frequent question that arises is whether legal expenses are deductible. The answer to that question can be both yes and no and can be complicated depending upon the nature of the legal expense.
The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), which is the body of tax laws written by the United States (U.S.) Congress and approved by the president in office at the time the law is created, tells us that except as otherwise expressly provided, such as itemized deductions, no deduction shall be allowed for personal, living, or family expenses. The IRC also says that, in the case of an individual, deductions are allowed for all of the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year:
• For the production or collection of taxable income; Read More
On November 24th of 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter the “Service”) streamlined the compliance for the Tangible Property Regulations (hereinafter “TPR”) for small businesses by increasing the safe harbor threshold for deducting certain capital items from $ 500 to $ 2,500 under IRS Notice 2015-82. The scope affects businesses that do not maintain an Applicable Financial Statement (hereinafter “AFS”) such as an audited financial statement. It applies to amounts spent to acquire, produce or improve tangible property that would normally qualify as a capital item.
The new $2,500 threshold applies to any such item that is substantiated by an invoice. As a result, small businesses will be able to immediately deduct expenditures that would otherwise need to be spread over a period of years through annual depreciation deductions. The new $2,500 threshold takes effect starting with tax year 2016. Read More
As the end of the year approaches, you will probably be besieged by requests from charitable organizations for contributions. The holiday season is the favorite time of the year for charities to solicit donations.
But you should be aware that it is also the time of year when scammers show up in force, pretending to be legitimate charities in hopes of deceiving you into giving them your hard-earned money.
When making a donation, you should take a few extra minutes to ensure your gifts are going to legitimate charities. IRS.gov has a search feature, Exempt Organizations Select Check, which allows people to find legitimate, qualified charities to which donations may be tax-deductible. Read More
With the wild fires and draught in the West and flooding on the East Coast, we have had a number of presidentially declared disaster areas this year. If you were an unlucky victim and suffered a loss as a result of a casualty, you may be able to recoup a portion of that loss through a tax deduction. If the casualty occurred within a federally declared disaster area, you can elect to claim the loss in one of two years: the tax year in which the loss occurred or the immediately preceding year.
By taking the deduction for a 2015 disaster area loss on the prior year (2014) return, you may be able to get a refund from the IRS before you even file your tax return for 2015, the loss year. You have until the unextended due date of the 2015 return to file an amended 2014 return to claim the disaster loss. Before making the decision to claim the loss in 2014, you should consider which year’s return would produce the greater tax Read More
It’s November! I am always surprised by it’s arrival and the realization that it’s year-end tax planning time. The shortened day-light hours seem to make that certain without a doubt. So let’s roll-up our sleeves, get down to work and fine-tune possible last-minute strategies for lowering your 2015 tax bill.
Tax Brackets: Let’s take a quick look at the 2015 tax brackets, you will see from the table below that the top tax rate of 39.6% will apply to incomes over $$413,200 (single), $464,851 (married filing jointly and surviving spouse), $232,426 (married filing separately), and $439,000 (heads of households):
The 3.8% net investment income tax and/or the 0.9% Medicare surtax will also apply if you Read More
Canada Just Passed Law Increasing Exclusion Rate For Capital Gains To 66.6%
Biden Proposes Highest Capital Gains Tax in Over 100 YEARS
What Is The BEAT For MNEs?
Event Waivers And Releases
Learn IRS Site Publications On Tax Credits That Are Not Easy To Find
Recent Comments