Right now there are 17 states that have had or are going to have a sales tax holiday this year(California not being one of them, of course). Is there a benefit to this or is it just a promotional gimmick that politicians can talk about and economists can complain about? See this article in the Christian Science Monitor by Richard C. Auxier, then you decide: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Tax-VOX/2014/0820/Do-tax-free-holidays-make-sense It looks like a lot of them coincide with sales tax exemptions in the states, or if a state (New York, for instance) wanted to compete with a neighbor state without a sales tax (New Jersey) and there may be other reasons for the holiday (the article touches on a couple of them). It is interesting that few western states have these holidays (New Mexico and Texas are the farthest west.) Overall, I think it depends on the state and what their motivation is to have these holidays. The states that hold them have their own agenda, and since they keep having them it is having the desired effect. 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: [...]
Musings of a Burbank CPA: Dying doesn’t make the taxman go away
When someone passes away, the person named executor of the estate has some responsibilities. See this article by Bill Bischoff in MarketWatch from The Wall Street Journal for more details: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dying-doesnt-make-the-taxman-go-away-2014-08-19 If there is a trust involved, the trustee has similar responsibilities to an executor, except a trust income tax return is filed instead of an estate income tax return. In either case, make sure all required returns are filed. 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
CPA Tax Musings: Tax Planning for 2015
While a lot of the extension bills from 2013 have not been extended for 2014 by Congress (yet), making some tax planning situations a bit murky, there are still some standard tax planning items to be done before the end of this year. See this post by Roger Russell in Accounting Today for the details: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-planning/tax-planning-for-2015-71668-1.html Still waiting on bonus depreciation and R & D credits among other items to be extended, but taking advantage of this list will help cut taxes. Make sure the planning is done for most of this before year end, as you can only take advantage of some of these at that time. 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