Ways To Take Advantage of Tax Rules

Its almost tax time again this year, a frightening period for many people. How can you make the most out of your tax return this year?

Here are some techniques that may save you some anguish and money when dealing with 2012 tax rates.

  1. Be willing to part with some of your possessions. Tax expert Joseph Thorndike says gift and estates taxes are the lowest they have been in a long time. This is the perfect time to set up a trust for any relatives, or to hand over the reins on a family business.

  2. If you are making money from a hobby, turn it into a business. If you make over 20k with more than 200 financial transactions, you will get a 1099-k. If you count is a business, you are allowed superior deductions.

  3. Pay your deductions early. There’s a chance that the limits on itemized deductions are going to be lowered in the next few years. If you can pay real estate taxes ahead of time you could end up saving some substantial money.

  4. Use the benefits of the zero percent capital gains tax. It can be used up until 2012 if you are in a lower income tax bracket. If you declare your investment gains now, rather than later, you will be paying less.

  5. If you are selling anything major like a business or real estate, or other major asset, see if the buyer can pay in full. This way you will end up paying less on capital gains tax. If you have to, try and negotiate a lower rate with your buyer, or to pay the cost of refinancing. It will shrink your short term profit, but you will be be making more overall.

Make the Best of Your Small Business Tax Deductions

End-of-the-year accounting can be difficult enough without the added stress of doing taxes for your small business. By gaining a clear and concise understanding of how you can make doing completing taxes for your company a simpler task, you can easily take the headache out of tax time. Follow these easy suggestions to simplify the filing process for your small business and grasp a better comprehension of how strategize your company’s tax strategies.

Prepare Along the Way

Waiting until tax time rolls around to prepare the necessary documents and get your business’s accounting updated is a struggle waiting to happen. Instead, make sure you file documents, receipts and information as the year progresses so that they are easy to find and use when they are needed by an accountant or company employee. Take the time, each month or even each employee pay period to make sure accounting books and documents are up to date, filed correctly and completed as expected to make things much easier for you when it comes time to file.

Accept Payment Later

At the end of the year, you could have payments that you expect to receive from customers or other businesses. If it is at all possible, try to accept payments in January of the following, rather than December so that the income is received in the next year rather than the current period that you will be filing for. Accepting payments a little later can save you some serious money that would otherwise cost you more in taxes because of its status as additional income.

Buy What You Need, Now

Your company goes through all kinds of supplies as the year goes on. But buying any of the products or goods your small business needs before the year ends is a good way to increase some of the deductions you can file for when tax time arrives. If you have accounts that are due soon, pay them before the year ends so that you can claim them as an expense on this year’s tax return. Any purchases that can be made early, such as travel arrangements, supplies, services or bills, will benefit your tax status by offering your business additional deductions.

Note Damages or Wasted Goods

Your business will endure waste. No matter what extent you endure damages or depleted supplies and necessities, make sure that you take note of your inventory, keeping track for use when it becomes time to file your taxes. Even goods and equipment that endure marked drops in value can be used on your taxes to create possible deductions and aid your overall financial situation.

Teresa is an attorney and an entrepreneur. She works for a company that assists people with audit representation. Visit her website to find more information on wage garnishment, audits and settling back taxes.

Tame the Taxman: How to Appeal Your Property Taxes

Doing your taxes correctly is difficult enough without falling prey to misinformation. In order to get the most out of your return and make sure you don’t miss out on deductions you deserve you must inform yourself with quality information from reliable sources. Read up on these common myths that could result in incorrect filing as well as overlooked deductions.

Myth 1: Property Examiners Can Define Your Tax Percentage

Contrary to popular belief, the assessment that a property examiner performs on your home or land does not directly determine the percentage of taxes you will pay. In contrast, an assessor will actually uncover the worth of your residence, which is used a one factor of what you will pay in property taxes. The percentage itself is established by your local or state government.

Myth 2: If You Pay High Property Taxes it is Only Because of Your Property Examination

The value of your property that results from its examination is only a piece of the property tax puzzle. If your property is assessed at a high value, you may experience higher taxes. But while the assessment itself helps determine your percentage, the tax rate for your area is of greater importance to your tax amounts than the mere examination of property value. If you believe your home value has been created in error, you can file an appeal that could result in a reexamination.

Myth 3: Your State is the Main Benefiter of Your Property Tax Dollars

Although your state receives some of your property tax dollars, more of your money actually goes toward funding your area’s pinpointed government and educational programs. If your state is one that does not charge sales tax or income tax, more of your property taxes will be used to fund your state government than states who do use sales and income taxes to stay afloat.

Myth 4: Your Property Taxes Will Always Be Lower With Assessment Caps

Despite the aid that assessment caps are meant to provide to homeowners, depending on your home type and age, they could actually be detrimental to your home value. Homes that increase in value at a quickened pace are averaged with home values that grow at a slower pace, resulting in an assessment cap. Depending on whether you have a slower growing valued home or a quickly increasing value, you may or may not benefit from the cap. In fact, if your home value is crawling, your valued could be capped at a higher level due to values within the community surrounding.

Anastacio Mindiola is a lawyer and an entrepreneur. He assists home owners appeal residential property taxes in Harris and the surrounding counties.

The ‘Buffett Rule’ For Millionaires – Would It Work?

President Barack Obama and Warren Buffett in t...
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Warren Buffet is a known millionaire – one that has worked his way through life and followed the tax rules. He has many employees. Recently, attention has been called to the fact that his secretary pays less in taxes (or is put to a lower tax rate than he).

Those that see this as impossible simply have not looked at the various head’s of company’s in the past. Yes, they make more money, but yes, they are responsible for a lot more and have to determine how to pay all the bills for a company, hire many employees and allocate benefits for those that work for them. This is why they are able to decrease their taxes because they have businesses and therefore have tax loops and breaks.

Having a business is how the world works. If no one is able to own a business because it is too expensive, then less people have work. One company may employ a variety of people. Their expenses are astronomical. By putting enormous tax burdens on employers, the employment situation will get very dire, more than it already is.

The “Warren Buffett Rule” takes place only in a society where everyone would be consider to make equal wages and pay out equally for where they work. Since that will never be the case, it would simply be impossible to do. By super taxing the very rich and those that own companies and strange predicament would happen. More people would lose their jobs because it would simply have to be.

Fair tax breaks for companies is the only clear way to keep an economy solvent. When companies can’t afford to pay people to work, then the people without jobs can’t afford to do anything and that stops the economy, putting it at far more peril than if people were employed.

The richest people spend more money. They keep a lot of things afloat when they go about vacationing and dining in expensive places. Taxing them enormously will keep them from doing what they need or want to do. When they are out and about they keep many people working in all different industries. That is the way that it will work to the benefit of most people.

Next time someone wants to know how much another is paying in taxes, the clear safe bet is to do your own, pay your own and be glad you have a job. The minute that a person succumbs to the argument of making the rich pay more than the poor, will in turn cause the poorest of all to become unemployed, virtually creating a mere depression of sorts.

The taxes should remain the same, at least for now. More jobs will have promise without raising any taxes. In fact, the more jobs that are created, the better the economy will improve. Otherwise there will be an economic disaster.

Michelle Heyward is a financial advisor, and helps consumers plan for greener pastures.  Did you know you can often save twenty percent on your auto insurance premiums by simply shopping around?  Visit Kanetix to do an auto insurance rate comparison.

Ten Tax Tips For Individuals Who Are Moving This Summer

Families often choose to move in the summertime. Moving in summer avoids the problem of having to work around school schedules. It can be an expensive task, but there are ways a person can reduce their moving-related expenses. They can even deduct some of the expenses if they know how or find some good tax tips for consultants.

  1. Time your move to coincide with the start of a new job. Moving-related expenses incurred within one year of the move can be written off on your 2011 taxes. The location of your new workplace must be at least 50 miles away from the location of the old workplace.
  2. Pass the time test. If you worked 40 weeks or more for a year after you moved you may be able to claim your moving expenses on your taxes. If you are self-employed, the time that must pass before you can claim your dedications is two years.
  3. Keep all of your hotel receipts. You can deduct the money you spent on lodging while moving from one place to another. This rule also applies to any of the travel expenses you may have incurred. Just remember that you can only deduct one trip per person.
  4. If you are good at holding on to receipts, you can deduct the cost of moving materials. You can include storage and utility costs as a deduction on your tax return. The cost of setting up utilities at the new home also counts.

You cannot deduct any portion of the cost of your new home, unfortunately. You do not need to if you know other aspects of the tax code.

The Debt Deal. Time To Do Your Own Tax?

Many people are confused about the recent debt deal and how it will affect them. The details of the deal raise a lot of questions and offer few answers. Federal spending will face huge cuts over the next 10 years and about one third of all cuts will come from defense and security.

One of the bills main feature is the establishment of a committee whose aim is to find a further $1.5 trillion in cuts. There are no guidelines as to where these funding cuts will be made and some commentators expect to see significant reductions in Social Security and increased taxation. However if this committee fails to come up with a comprehensive spending reduction plan then a series of automatic cuts will come into being. These cuts will hit Medicare, Medicaid, and military spending the heaviest.

There are a few things that savers and investors can do in order to protect themselves in these uncertain times. Investors should investigate how dependent the companies they hold shares in are on government contracts. These contracts will surely dry up in the coming years.

Anyone close to retirement should hold off on stopping work in order to defer their Social Security retirement plan. This will add 8% to your benefits, which is a lot more than you’ll get by putting that money in the bank.

If you are not already doing so you should do your own tax. You’ll save money by doing 2011 taxes yourself instead of hiring a professional. Once you have done your own tax for one year, you will be able to continue to make this saving for many years to come.