Individual and Fiduciary Tax Organizers will be sent to clients the week of January 25th.  

New for 2020 individual income tax returns: (1) Stimulus Payments and (2) a new deduction for cash charitable donations that does not require the taxpayer to itemize deductions.

(1) The Stimulus Payment(s) is/are a pre-payment of a 2020 Tax Credit.  In some instances the payment(s) you received will be less than what you are owed and we can only determine any additional payment due to you if you let us know the amount(s) that you received.  The IRS informed you of the amount(s) you received with Notices 1444 and 1444-B.  Please provide us with these forms or fill out a worksheet that we will provide to you.

(2) There is a new deduction for up to $300 of cash charitable donations that does not require the taxpayer to itemize so please let us know of all cash donations you have made in 2020.

 

Tax Planning in Uncertain Times:  We do not know much about the tax law changes that are coming our way, but there are a few things that you can be doing now to prepare.  (1) One of the best and most commomly used tax savings tools is your employer's retirement plan.  Please make sure that you are maximizing your contributions to the retirement plan in 2021.  (2) Check into your employer's handbook to see what employer provided fringe benefits are available.  This is especially important because a lot of Americans are working from home and your employer can setup (or may already have) and accountable plan to reimburse employees, tax-free, for the business use of a home office.  (3) It looks like Estate Tax will become an issue again for many Americans.  If the value of your home, life insurance, retirement and savings or investments are over $1,000,000 it may be time to do some advance planning for your Estate.