Now that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been fully in place for a while, the forms you will be getting to file your taxes have increased. Remember the fun last year with the form 1095-A from the insurance exchanges that let you file for the Premium Tax Credit (or pay some or all of it back if you didn’t deserve it)? Well, this form is back as well as two other forms we haven’t seen before (what fun!) In addition to the form 1095-A we also have: 1) Form 1095-B: this form reports the insurance you paid for this year if you didn’t go through an exchange and got insurance directly from a health insurance company. You need this to prove you had insurance and are not subject to the shared responsibility payment (Penalty for not having insurance.) 2) Form 1095-C: this form is filed by an employer and is needed if the employer has over 50 employees (an Applicable Large Member, or ALE) and if the employer provides a self-insured plan to report minimum coverage that may allow the employee to get a Premium Tax Credit. (It also shows the employee has the minimum insurance coverage so they [...]
Musings of a Burbank CPA: Year End Tax Items That Can Save a Bunch of Cash!
If you have not gotten with your tax preparer yet to plan for the end of the year, there are some things to be done: *Decide on final IRA, Roth IRA and 401K contributions (The IRAs don’t have to be paid by April 15, but the 401K employee deferral has to be paid by year end.) *See if you need to ‘bunch’ itemized deductions by: 1) Make your state income tax estimate (or if you think you may owe taxes increase state tax withholding) in December for the tax deduction. 2) Pay April real estate taxes now. 3) Pay your mortgage payment at the end of December instead of the beginning of January to get the interest writeoff. 4) Make additional charitable contributions by cash or check by the end of the year (make sure you have a letter or get a receipt by the charity to substantiate the deduction.) *In additional to cash and check charitable contributions, make sure you make any final donations of non-cash items by the end of the year. *If you have a business, see about buying any needed items at end of December rather than the beginning of January so you can reduce the [...]
Tax Musings of a Burbank CPA: Remember that personal tax extensions run out October 15!
If you have not filed your 2014 personal taxes yet, this is your 2 week warning! The extension will run out October 15 and if you owe taxes, not only will you owe late payment penalties and interest, you could also owe the late filing penalty, which is 5% a month from April 15 (maximum 25% of tax.) Won’t that be an additional kick in the head. So quit messing around and get the returns filed, even if you can’t pay all the tax due. Whether you file yourself or get a professional to help, get it done! 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 Android and the IPhone: Has been Featured On https://twitter.com/bstonercpa