Archives for April 2013

IS NOW TOO SOON TO PLAN FOR 2013?

April 30, 2013 by Frank

April 15 has come and gone and you’ve filed and paid your tax bill or you’re waiting for a refund . . . or you’re waiting for October 15 when your extension expires.

Whew!

No reason to even think about next year’s return, right?

Wrong!!!

If you invest some time now in next year’s return, you can not only make your life easier on April 15, 2014 but you just might save yourself some money. So, you might ask, what should I do now?

Take the following five steps . . . you’ll definitely be glad you did: [Read more…] about IS NOW TOO SOON TO PLAN FOR 2013?

Missed the April 15 tax filing deadline?

April 23, 2013 by Frank

Oops.

You didn’t mean to but you ran out of time . . . you just couldn’t get your 2012 federal tax return filed by April 15, and, like it or not, that deadline has come and gone.

Not good.

Okay . . . what’s done is done . . . so, what can you do now?

You need to consider the following: [Read more…] about Missed the April 15 tax filing deadline?

IS THE IRS READING YOUR EMAILS?

April 16, 2013 by Frank

THE IRS MAY BE READING YOUR EMAILS WITHOUT A WARRANT. The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act that suggests the IRS’s criminal division has been reading taxpayers’ emails without a warrant despite [Read more…] about IS THE IRS READING YOUR EMAILS?

SEVEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MEDICAL AND DENTAL EXPENSE DEDUCTIONS

April 2, 2013 by Frank

APRIL 15 IS COMING QUICK AND IF YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT DEDUCTING MEDICAL AND DENTAL EXPENSES, you better get to work, gathering the documentation you’ll need to calculate how much you’ll be entitled to claim on your 2012 1040 federal return.

Qualified medical and dental expenses include payments to dentists, doctors, hospitals, insurance premiums (including premiums paid for Medicare advantage and some long-term care policies), medical equipment and supplies, and prescriptions. For a comprehensive list of IRS-approved medical and dental expenses, you can go to IRS.Gov and find IRS Publication 502.

While itemized deductions add up to big bucks on a national scale, medical itemized deductions may not add up to much on your return because you can only deduct out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). If, for example, your adjusted gross income for 2012 was $60,000.00 and you spent $4,000.00 in out-of-pocket medical and dental expenses, you would be able to deduct only $500.00.

The larger question for you might be whether or not you should itemize any deductions as opposed to taking the standard deduction and that is a question that is always best answered by a tax professional.

The seven critical facts you need to know about medical and dental deductions for the 2012 tax year come directly [Read more…] about SEVEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MEDICAL AND DENTAL EXPENSE DEDUCTIONS