Under a recently enacted law, eligible small and midsize employers can claim two new refundable payroll tax credits, designed to reimburse them, dollar for dollar, for the cost of providing coronavirus-related leave to their employees. The relief was enacted under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, P.L, 116-127, signed by President Donald Trump on March 18, [...]
Taxpayers who filed their 2019 tax return and are waiting for their refund can check their refund status by going to IRS.gov and clicking on Get Your Refund Status to access the Where's My Refund? tool. People can check the status of their tax return about 24 hours after the IRS acknowledges receipt of an electronically filed [...]
Even though many taxpayers were surprised to receive smaller refunds for the 2019 tax year, it is likely many still did not heed warnings about adjusting their withholding before the current tax filing season. According to this survey, 56 percent of ... Taxpayers are ill-informed about changes to the tax law that may impact them [...]
A new IRS question appears at the top of Schedule 1 to your 2019 Form 1040. It asks if you received, sold, sent, exchanged, or otherwise acquired any financial interest in any virtual currency at any time during the year. It is not asking for numbers or detail, although if you sold some, it should go [...]
The Internal Revenue Service has provided relief to financial institutions that were expected to provide required minimum distribution (RMD) statements to IRA owners by Jan 31, 2020. Notice 2020-6 clarifies that if an RMD statement is provided for 2020 to an IRA owner who will turn age 70½ in 2020, the IRS will not consider [...]
Luckily, there's plenty of time for you to recover from these all-too-common financial blunders. It might not come as news that we Millennials receive little respect for our financial skills. Having grown up in an era where the focus regularly fell on protecting individuals’ self-esteem (e.g., participation trophies), I can attest we often received reminders [...]
One wrong move can increase your retirement tax bill. RETIREES WHO PLAN carefully can often pay a lower tax bill in retirement. However, tax mistakes can have a dramatic effect on your finances when you're on a fixed income. Poor or haphazard tax planning might actually move you into a higher tax bracket or result in [...]
Everyone’s heard the stories of celebrities who died without a proper estate plan in place. It’s been a hot topic in the last few years with Prince and Aretha Franklin serving as unfortunate faces of the phenomenon. But it’s not just freewheeling entertainers. Abraham Lincoln – a lawyer by trade – didn’t have one either, which leads me [...]
For years, I have filed my own taxes. As a child I watched my mom with stacks of receipts spread across the kitchen table, typing in numbers to file taxes for the interior painting business that she and my dad owned. When I began filing my own taxes, it made sense to follow her lead [...]
You can't just target a $1 million or $2 million goal, because if you're a big spender or a penny pincher, that figure could be way off what you really need. People frequently ask me how much money they’ll need to retire, as if there’s a one-size-fits-all dollar amount. They tell me $1 million is [...]