Bonus! What is the first thought that comes to mind?
Make this additional money work hard for you by following Allison Martin’s eight simple steps. Don’t worry, one is all about spending a little on yourself!
1. Tackle Credit Card Debt
2. Get Caught Up on Past Due Bills
3. Boost Your Emergency Fund
4. Beef Up Your Nest Egg Or Other Investments
5. Establish A College Fund
6. Home Improvements
7. Be Charitable
8. Live A Little
Every summer, parents face the daunting decision of whether or not to send their children to camp. What kind of camp to choose? Day camp? Sleep-away?
The summer camp experience offers children so many life lessons, such as teamwork, resilience and decision making. Skills that are useful throughout adulthood. Not to mention a week or more break for parents! I will never forget my time spent at Ghost Ranch Vocal Camp. Todd Kestin feels the same way, 5 Ways Summer Camp Helps Your Child Prepare for Adulthood
This article was especially interesting to me since I have an art gallery space in my accounting office. Of course, none of the works that I have exhibited fall into the category they are talking about, but imagine if you could avoid capital gains taxes all together through re-investment of your earnings from prior art sales. It’s the same principle as real estate purchases and has been growing in popularity recently, to the point where some “traders” are seeing art as a commodity. What do you think? Time to invest in some fine art?
We are now three days post April 15th, and so I figured we all needed a break from the more serious, tax-related articles. These photographs fascinated me. The grouping entitled Alien Forest is actually of microscopic, forest dwellers who hunt and feed on other microscopic forest dwellers. Hmm, kind of sounds like a microscopic version of the business world. Happy “tax free” weekend. Enjoy the photos by Valeriya Zvereva!
What do you feel when I say IRS? They rank about like Biblical tax collectors in most circles and after their scandalous conference spending along with $2.8 million in bonuses to tax-delinquent employees, it stands to reason. But another spending cut for the IRS may worsen the already growing issues in the areas of enforcement and customer-service functions that have occurred since the last reduction in funds. I mean, who enjoys listening to hold music for an hour just to find out how to properly complete section T-1 on Tax Form IDK WUM 44EZ?
The IRS has finally announced an official start date for the 2014 filing season: It will start accepting returns on Jan. 31. This date is 10 days later than the originally planned starting date of Jan. 21. “The late January opening gives us enough time to get things right with our programming, testing, and systems validation,” said Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a press release. This process involves programming, testing, and deploying the more than 50 IRS systems that are needed to handle nearly 150 million tax returns.
Read more: Journal of Accountancy
Tax-Free Scholarships and Fellowships
If and to the extent your scholarship or fellowship does not meet the requirements described earlier, it is taxable and must be included in gross income. You can use Worksheet 1–1, Taxable Scholarship and Fellowship Income (pg 6) to figure the tax-free and taxable parts of your scholarship or fellowship.
Well, not jail exactly.
Many employers prefer to classify employees as contractors to avoid paying payroll taxes and employee benefits. If the IRS , state employment agency, or the Department of Labor (DOL) audits a taxpayer and determines that employees have been miss classified as contractors, the employer may have to pay the employees’ shares of taxes, including estimated income tax, plus the employer share of payroll taxes, interest, and penalties. In addition there is a special six year statute of limitations rather than the normal three year limit as to how far back the IRS can asses additional tax.
The IRS Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (VCSP) as described in Announcement 2012-45 offers employers the opportunity to reclassify their contractors as employees and limit exposure to additions to tax, penalties and interest. Announcement 2012-46 temporarily expands the VCSP through June 30, 2013, to employers that failed to file Forms 1099 for their contractors.
Here’s a good article about the VCSP: Get Your Worker Reclassification Relief While It Lasts
A federal court has denied H&R Block’s effort to stop Intuit from continuing to air a pair of TV commercials for TurboTax that comically suggested tax prep franchise employees worked as plumbers and clothing store clerks outside of tax season.
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/HR-Block-Loses-Lawsuit-Trying-Stop-Intuit-TV-Ads-65495-1.html
As workers open their W-2 forms this month, many will see a new box with information on the total cost of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. To some, it will be a surprise, perhaps even a shock.
Continue reading Robert Pear’s article.