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Some do it often, while others hold on all year for that one great experience and live day by day until that magical start date on the calendar!  A new wave in our digital age is to only take three or four day weekends, but do it more often. However you “vacation”, they do have one common thread, and that is that they are not free.  Furthermore, when you are officially vacationing (which becomes a mindset as well….I am officially on vacation as of right now!) you spend more freely, often with a disregard for cost shopping.  “I’m stopping at Starbucks for the Mocha Frappuccino, not Dunkin, cause I’m on vacation!”. What if next vacation you could upgrade to fly...

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An often overlooked tax savings opportunity comes from not fully understanding how you can use your cars as a deduction on your tax return.  It is very common for people who have a Schedule C sole proprietor type business to claim their mileage on automobiles. But the privilege of using personal deductions on a tax return is not limited to someone who is filing a Schedule C.  For instance, a landlord might own three apartment buildings and file a schedule E on his personal tax return and not feel like he is “self-employed” as he has a full-time W-2 job. However, the use of his personal car on that schedule E is just as deductible as it is for the...

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Often people will have one-time “Income Events” that greatly increase the income tax due in that year. Finding ways to mitigate that additional tax, especially for younger people, can be challenging. In some cases, setting up a Charitable Lead Trust (CLT) in order to receive an upfront income tax deduction might be viable option. A person who has significant and unusual taxable income in a particular year can establish the grantor lead trust and use the charitable income tax deduction to mitigate the impact of taxes in his or her situation. An example might be someone who has received the proceeds from selling a business, or a stock option at work is coming due. A far more common and likely...

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People who earn more than a certain amount and who are enrolled in Medicare Part B or Medicare Part D, or both, will face additional premiums, called The Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjusted Amount (IRMAA). IRMAA “surcharges,” which is a replacement word for a tax, are based on income earned two years prior to the coverage year. So, for example, a client enrolling in Medicare in 2023 would pay an IRMAA surcharge based on their 2021 tax return. Generally there are two types of people that pay IRMAA surcharges: Those who might be affected and those who will always be affected. Because it is income based, people with an unusual income event may only be affected once, while people with higher incomes may always...

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Have you ever had a “light bulb” moment?  I have been driving for many years.  I’ve driven at least a million miles and I own a few cars (I collect certain types), and when driving my spouse’s car or one from the collection that I haven’t driven in a while, inevitably it’s time to gas up.  I pull up to a pump and get out and realize that the gas cap is on the other side, back up the car, turn it around with a sigh and fill it up.  Then this year the “light bulb” moment.  While trying to figure out the dashboard “iPhone” charger fuse location, I happened to be looking at the diagram of the fuel gauge in...

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It’s May and the current tax filing season has finally come to an end (for most of us), and for many with a familiar recurring moan and groan of having paid too much in taxes. Now is the time to take your preventative medicine and avoid the pain next year! Being human, we all form habits. Some good. Most bad. We try to develop good ones to replace the bad ones and often we are successful, but most successes don’t come without a coach, cheerleader or some kind of support. Tax time is usually a time of regret over not being successful at last year’s promise to oneself: “I’m not going to pay this much again. I`m going to keep...

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Don’t let your stockbroker off the hook when it comes to tax planning. Many people work with brokers when they buy and sell stocks. Many people now, because of the internet, also have become their own stockbrokers, doing their own research and trading on various platforms. Whether you use a professional or do your trades yourself, you still need to hold your stockbroker accountable. What do I mean? If a broker is helping you buy and sell, they had to take a Series license of some kind. Sometimes, an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) has taken a Series 65 exam. If it’s a representative of a broker/dealer, perhaps they’ve taken a Series 6 or a Series 7 exam. There are other possibilities, but the point is, these exams are...

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The answer to that might surprise you.  Because, for the most part, the answer is yes.  However, sometimes they are only fair if you know how to “play the game”.  Most people think only the wealthy can avoid paying income tax because they know how to play the game.  Well, at a much lower level, everybody knows some of the tricks to “playing the game”.  For instance, you might be contributing to your 401(k) at work.  Well, you’re playing the game.  However, you might not know that even though you’re contributing everything you can to your 401(k) at work, you’re still allowed to open an additional private IRA, and take another several thousand dollars off of your taxable income.  That trick is “knowing the rest of the rules...

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Some people have filed their tax return, received a refund and already spent it. Others have filed and paid and the “pain is over” for another year. But for many who have not filed and are looking at the calendar and saying “Oh, no!”, here are some tips. If you haven’t filed because of a natural disaster in your area, you may not have to do anything. The IRS gives a state by state accounting of any special things going on around the country that might affect filing deadlines. Click this link, go to your state and see: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/around-the-nation.   If you don’t have anything under special rules then you may extend the filing of your paperwork by submitting form...

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When people save for retirement they almost automatically use accounts that avoid tax now. IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457s, all pretax retirement savings plans. Certainly, long term savings uninterrupted by withdrawals and the effect of compounding interest on interest earned is unarguably valuable, but doing that in pretax accounts is NOT the only way to have that happen! Non-qualified annuities and Roth IRAs allow the same mechanics of compounding to happen, and in retirement both can be as valuable depending on the circumstances and actions of the retiree. Annuities are underappreciated as a tax planning tool, because of the way earnings are treated as ordinary income upon withdrawal. However if annuitized at retirement (an option the advisors that distribute them don’t...

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