Year-round tax planning can save both time and money by helping you take advantage of opportunities throughout the year to position yourself and your business to pay the lowest possible tax. Before you can begin your tax planning though, you have to get organized. If you are not using QuickBooks or other accounting software, now is the time to move …
The omnibus spending bill, ‘The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015’ was signed into law last Friday and extends a number of important tax breaks. It also makes a number of them permanent. Among the deductions, credits and tax provisions included in the bill: The Research & Development credit Increased expensing limitations and treatment of certain real property …
In July 2015, the Senate Finance Committee voted to extend bonus depreciation and the enhanced section 179 deduction through 2016. Bonus depreciation may result in substantial tax savings for businesses that already had plans to purchase or construct qualified property. Unlike section 179 expensing, you do not need net income to take bonus depreciation deductions. Further, bonus depreciation is not …
If you were born before before July 1, 1945, you generally must receive payments from your individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) and workplace retirement plans by Dec. 31. Known as required minimum distributions (RMDs), these payments normally must be made by the end of 2015. But a special rule allows first-year recipients of these payments, those who reached age 70 during …
The 2015 Tax Amnesty Program is the third and final effort permitted by the Louisiana Tax Delinquency Amnesty Act of 2013. After the conclusion of 2015 amnesty, there will be no new amnesty program offered by the Department of Revenue before Jan. 1, 2025. APPLICATIONS FOR LOUISIANA TAX AMNESTY 2015 WILL BEGIN AT 12:00 AM (central time), MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, …
Maximize your profitability with good tax planning so you won’t be burdened with taxes that could be reduced or even eliminated. Start with looking for ways to push income 2016 while pulling expenses into 2015. If you use the cash-method of accounting, delay as many invoices as possible until after January 1, 2016 so that you will not receive payment …
Standard deductions and the personal exemption will both increase slightly for the 2016 tax year according to the Revenue Procedure 2015 document released by the IRS October 21. Revised tax tables are shown below. Beginning in 2016, the allowable itemized deductions are $311,300 in the case of a joint return or a surviving spouse, $285,350 in the case of a …
Louisiana convened its 2015 legislative session with seemingly insurmountable problems: a $1.6 billion budget shortfall, difficult-to-navigate funding dedications, and a governor who pledged he wouldn’t increase taxes. If that combination seems intractable, it wasâ€â€the session closed with a patchwork of short-term, temporary fixes to plug the budget hole with promises that legislators would be back in the next legislative session …
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing a Tax Court decision, concluded that the tax law’s limits on the amount of debt eligible for the home mortgage interest deduction ($1 million of mortgage “acquisition” debt and $100,000 of home equity debt) are applied on a per-individual basis, and not a per-residence basis as the IRS has long maintained.Thus, for the …
There were a number of important tax developments in the third quarter of 2015 including changes to “per diem” travel expense reimbursements. An employer may pay a per-diem amount to an employee on business-travel status instead of reimbursing actual substantiated expenses for away-from-home lodging, meal and incidental expenses. If the rate paid doesn’t exceed IRS-approved maximums, and the employee provides …
