Before this year, you could claim itemized deductions for medical expenses paid for you, your spouse and your dependents to the extent those expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). But the rules have changed for the worse in 2013 and beyond. Due to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the old 7.5%-of-AGI [...]
IRA owners and beneficiaries who have reached age 70 ½ are permitted to make donations to IRS-approved public charities directly out of their IRAs. These so-called qualified charitable distributions, or QCD‘s are federal-income-tax-free to you, but you get no charitable deduction on your tax return. But,that is fine because the tax-free treatment of QCDs [...]
Many taxpayers make adjustments to their investment portfolio near year-end to take profits, to recognize tax losses to reallocate their assets, and for various other reasons. When making purchases of mutual funds near year-end, however, you should be wary of actually purchasing a tax liability. This is a danger: mutual funds must pay out their [...]
Higher income taxpayers beware. There is a new surtax to contend with. Originating as a component of 2010 health care legislation and first effective in 2013, the 3.8% net investment income tax (3.8% NIIT) is assessed on the lesser of net investment income (NII) or modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) above specific thresholds. The MAGI [...]
Receiving Payments from Customers in QuickBooks Depending on the situation, there’s more than one way to record a payment in QuickBooks. Here are your options. There are undoubtedly some QuickBooks tasks that are more enjoyable than others. It’s no fun paying bills, for example, and making collection calls on unpaid invoices can be downright [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Edith Windsor Case, invalidating a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, raised many questions regarding the federal income tax rights and responsibilities of the same-sex couples. The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS recently ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in a jurisdiction that [...]