Tax

If you’re self-employed and work out of an office in your home, you may be entitled to home office deductions. However, you must satisfy strict rules. If you qualify, you can deduct the “direct expenses” of the home office. This includes the costs of painting or repairing the home office and depreciation deductions for furniture […]

Can the child tax credit help you? If you’re a parent, or if you’re planning on having children, you know that it’s expensive to pay for their food, clothes, activities and education. Fortunately, there’s a tax credit available for taxpayers with children under the age of 17, as well as a dependent credit for older […]

Are you offering digital documents to your clients? Have you applied for a business loan lately? Or had some repairs done on your facilities? Maybe you’ve signed a contract with a certain technologically inclined customer or vendor. In any of these instances, you (or one of your employees) probably had to electronically sign a digital […]

Wondering how you can reduce tax? Do you conduct your business as a sole proprietorship or as a wholly owned limited liability company (LLC)? If so, you’re subject to both income tax and self-employment tax. There may be a way to cut your tax bill by using an S corporation. Self-employment tax basics The self-employment […]

Married couples often wonder whether they should file joint or separate tax returns. The answer depends on your individual tax situation. It generally depends on which filing status results in the lowest tax. But keep in mind that, if you and your spouse file a joint return, each of you is “jointly and severally” liable […]

Wondering how to cut your tax bill? Consider an IRA. If you’re getting ready to file your 2019 tax return, and your tax bill is higher than you’d like, there may still be an opportunity to lower it. If you qualify, you can make a deductible contribution to a traditional IRA right up until the […]

An array of tax-related limits that affect businesses are annually indexed for inflation, and many have increased for 2020. Here are some that may be important to you and your business. Social Security tax The amount of employees’ earnings that are subject to Social Security tax is capped for 2020 at $137,700 (up from $132,900 […]

Right now, you may be more concerned about your 2019 tax bill than you are about your 2020 tax situation. That’s understandable because your 2019 individual tax return is due to be filed in less than three months. However, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with tax-related amounts that may have changed for 2020. […]

The IRS announced it is opening the 2019 individual income tax return filing season on January 27. Even if you typically don’t file until much closer to the April 15 deadline (or you file for an extension), consider filing as soon as you can this year. The reason: You can potentially protect yourself from tax […]

If you’re starting to fret about your 2019 tax bill, there’s good news — you may still have time to reduce your liability. Three strategies are available that may help you cut your taxes before year-end, including: 1. Accelerate deductions/defer income. Certain tax deductions are claimed for the year of payment, such as the mortgage interest […]