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Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
What are the specified foreign financial assets that You need to report on Form 8938? If you are required to file Form 8938, you must report your financial accounts maintained by a foreign financial institution. Examples of financial accounts include: savings, deposit, checking, and brokerage accounts held with a bank or broker-dealer. And, to the…
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Additional Medicare Tax
A new Additional Medicare Tax went into effect on Jan. 1, 2013. The 0.9 percent Additional Medicare Tax applies to an individual’s wages, Railroad Retirement Tax Act compensation and self-employment income that exceeds a threshold amount based on the individual’s filing status. The threshold amounts are $250,000 for married taxpayers who file jointly, $125,000 for…
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Home Office Deduction
If you use your home for business, you may be able to deduct expenses for the business use of your home. If you qualify, you can claim the deduction whether you rent or own your home. You may use either the simplified method or the regular method to claim your deduction. Here are six tips…
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Need More Time to File Your Taxes?
The April 18 tax deadline is coming up. If you need more time to file your taxes, you can get an automatic six-month extension from the IRS. Here are a few things you should know about filing an extension. More time to file is not more time to pay. An extension to file will give you…
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Health Insurance Terms Defined
According to the federal government, “affordable coverage” is defined as follows: If the lowest cost self-only only health plan is 9.5 percent or less of your full-time employee’s household income then the coverage is considered affordable. Another term used in the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) is “minimum value”. The IRS released the definition of “minimum…
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2016 Brought no Snow During Tax Season, but Lots of Sickness
First, Happy Easter everyone! We’ve been so busy, I did not get a chance to post for Easter. On Saturday, my daughter Kimberly came and helped us by filling in for Dondi, who is out until next Wednesday. I told Kimberly that I feel like the Grinch who cancelled the Easter Egg Hunt the day…
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Nine Defendants Sentenced in $24 Million Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud Ring
On Sept. 25, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala., Keisha Lanier, of Newnan, Ga., was sentenced to 180 months in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $5,811,406 for her role as the ringleader of a stolen identity tax refund fraud (SIRF) conspiracy. Between January 2011 and December 2013, Lanier and co-conspirator, Tracy Mitchell,…
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Ollie Lambert Recounts History with Us
In the office today, we had the pleasure of seeing long time client, Mr. Oliver Lambert, who has been getting his taxes done with us since the early 70’s. Although we have many clients we have been seeing a long time, the way in which Mr. Lambert; or Ollie, as he goes by, started having…
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Scammers Change Tactics, Once Again
Aggressive and threatening phone calls by criminals impersonating IRS agents remain a major threat to taxpayers, but now we are receiving new reports of scammers calling under the guise of verifying tax return information over the phone. The latest variation being seen in the last few weeks tries to play off the current tax season. Scam…
