So here is this time honored question – how long do I have to keep all my old income tax receipts? What’s the answer? It may be a little more complicated than that. The IRS statute of limitations (the time limit the IRS has to audit your taxes for any particular year) is three years from the date of filing. Your state may have different rules (for instance, California’s statute of limitations is four years from the date of filing.) Taking your state into account, and especially if you have filed an extension in the past (which can add up to six months onto the statute of limitations), a general rule of thumb is probably five years; some tax professionals recommend seven years to be safe. But there is more information you may need to keep longer than the five-to-seven year time frame. If you own a house (residence, rental or investment property), you need to keep documentation of all the improvements you made to the property, since you may have to show the auditors your cost basis so an accurate gain or loss can be calculated (even if you have the $500,000 exclusion on a principle residence, any gain above [...]
Musings of a Burbank CPA: Here Are Some Weird Thanksgiving Facts!
Just in case you weren’t sick to death of my Halloween feature, here’s one for Thanksgiving! Weirdworm.com talks about strange Thanksgiving facts and their effect on the Day of the Turkey (almost our national bird!) Also the creation of the TV Dinner, causing the breakup of conversation at the dinner table (unless you consider sitting on the couch and everyone talking and cheering their football teams ‘Conversation.’): http://www.weirdworm.com/weird-thanksgiving-day-facts/ I think Ben Franklin had been playing with electricity a little too much to prefer the turkey. Thank goodness “Tom” Jefferson liked the eagle! For financial, accounting and tax musings, You can count on us to count for you! Email: bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net Phone: 818-317-6035 Website: www.briantstonercpa.com https://twitter.com/bstonercpa
Financial Musings of a Burbank CPA: Coin, the smartcard that can replace all credit and debit cards
What is this new card called ‘Coin’, anyway? It is a smartcard you can register all your credit and debit cards on, and only have to carry the one card to purchase things and use the ATM. See this article in the San Jose Mercury News by Salvador Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Times: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_24533253/ The cards are scheduled to ship next year and cost $100, but ‘for an limited time’ you can pre-order the cards for $55. So now the question is: What’s In Your Wallet? (Gee I should do commercials!) For financial, accounting and tax musings, You can count on us to count for you! Email: bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net Phone: 818-317-6035 Website: www.briantstonercpa.com https://twitter.com/bstonercpa