Unlike a lot of potentially one-sided bills out of the House, this bill stands a decent chance of passage. See the details in this article by Michael Cohn in AccountingToday: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/government_news/house-committee-passes-bill-banning-state-taxes-on-internet-access-71013-1.html This really looks like a ban that people are in favor of – think of the dollars it will cost everyone if the states can tax our internet usage! With the midterm elections coming up and all the politicians fighting for their lives, not voting for this bill would be stuff the other side can use to win. Plus, right now this ban has expired every few years, so it will be less work to have to extend the ban – the current extension ends November 1, 2014. Plus this ban extends to Ohio and Texas, states that have an internet tax and were allowed to keep it under the original bill that has been extended since 1998. 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
Financial Musings of a Burbank CPA: A Three-Step Plan for Retirement Withdrawals
When you are ready to retire, you probably will have some pension income, social security, taxable accounts, tax deferred accounts (401Ks, traditional IRAs, SEPs, etc.) and tax avoidance accounts (Roth IRAs, etc.). You will pay tax on the social security and pensions as they are paid to you, but on most, if not all, of the other accounts you can choose which to make withdrawals from. What should you take out first? See this article in Yahoo! Finance and Forbes.com by John Wasik for some help: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/three-step-plan-retirement-withdrawals-130900208.html This order list is a basic thing as a starting point: you should really look at your income each year in addition to amounts you need to withdraw (if you are over 70 1/2 you may have to take some of the tax deferred money each year.) It would be smart to set up a planning session with your tax preparer in the middle of the year to check your tax situation so you can be better informed about what makes sense. If you have the information when you have your taxes prepared, that is a great time to take a look. For financial, accounting and tax musings, You can count on [...]
IRS scam continues long after tax-filing season
So the fake IRS telephone threat scam has been working so well the scammers didn’t stop when tax season is over (it is apparently still profitable to run this out of season.) See this article in USAToday by Herb Weisbaum, a CNBC contributor, for more details: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/15/cnbc-tax-scams-irs/10438269/ Just remember that usually the only time the IRS will call you is if you are being audited and they want to schedule an appointment. They NEVER ask for money over the phone (you will get a letter requesting payment with a reasonable time to pay it.) and ordinary no one is going to take you to jail over income tax ‘errors’ – they usually just want the additional money due (kind of like the scammers.) 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