Well the scam artists are at it again, posing as the Franchise Tax Board and targeting elderly people with various items from red-light traffic tickets to offers to check on their refund status. See this post by Claudia Buck in Sacramento Bee Business: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/22/5843400/ftb-warns-of-scam-artists-impersonating.html Everyone needs to be on guard and tell your elderly friends and relatives not to fall for these crazy cons! 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
Tax Musings of a Burbank CPA: Time To Think About Year End Planning!
October is slowly coming to a close and if you own a small business it is time to think of year end tax planning. Planning strategies to think about at year end are: 1. Purchases of business fixed assets – the Section 179 expensing of assets plus 50% bonus depreciation make this a definite tax advantage. But don’t buy something you are not planning on purchasing soon anyway as the tax savings are only a portion of the cash paid out (if you are getting a loan to help defray some of the cash outlay that may make the purchase worthwhile, but some planning is in order before pulling the trigger.) 2. Look into accelerating some deductions into the current year. Remember if you are cash basis you can deduct items charged on a credit card at the time they show on the credit card balance, not the time they are paid, which will allow for deferring the payment for the deduction into next year if necessary. 3. Planning on either accelerating income to take advantage of deductions or deferring it till next year. It can be as simple as when you send your December invoices or asking for early payments, [...]
Tax Musings of a Burbank CPA: Should You Contribute to Your 401K Or a Roth IRA?
Assuming your income is such that you qualify for a Roth IRA and your company makes some kind of matching contribution to a portion of your 401K contributions, the order of contribution should be as follows: a. Contribute enough to your 401K so you take advantage of the company match – this is found money and should always be taken advantage of. b. Contribute the maximum amount you can to your Roth IRA. Different calculations have pretty much shown that if you have a 10-15 year time horizon a Roth is better than contributions to a deferred vehicle like a 401K because you forgo the tax deduction upfront to be able to take all account balances out tax free (if you have held it the longer of five years or when you turn 59 1/2). Since tax rates in the future will only go up, having tax free income is definitely an advantage. c. If you still want to contribute more to retirement, go ahead and max out your 401K contributions. This is the best way to maximize what you will receive from your retirement plans. Call or email if you have questions. For financial, accounting and tax musings, You can count on [...]