Posted on by Jan Roberg

Missouri Health Insurance Deduction

Missouri has a tax deduction for health insurance premiums

 

When you live in a state that has an income tax, like Missouri, you need to be aware of the state’s little deductions that aren’t automatically on your federal tax return.  One of these is the Health Insurance deduction.

 

It’s very difficult to claim any medical deductions on your federal income tax return because you have to meet the requirement that your medical expenses exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income.  In Missouri, you don’t have that.  If your health insurance isn’t already exempt from taxes, you can claim your health insurance as a deduction on your Missouri State income tax return.

 

You’ll find the deduction on line 12 of the Missouri schedule A.  For most people, its just a straight, direct entry on the form.  If you happen to have been able to claim your health insurance on your federal schedule A, or had medicare payments withheld from your Social Security, there’s a worksheet to determine just how much of a deduction you’ll get to claim on your Missouri return.  (For some people, your computer software will automatically calculate the amount of medicare insurance you can deduct, but you need to watch out if you’re adding additional insurance payments that you don’t delete the medicare payments.)

 

The health insurance deduction is especially valuable to senior citizens who may qualify for the Missouri Property Tax Credit.  It not only reduces their taxable Missouri income, but by reducing the income, it can increase the amount of property tax credit they receive.  Many seniors who qualify for the property tax credit don’t have any Missouri taxable income so the preparers don’t bother to look for deductions and that’s a mistake.

 

If you’d like to take a look at the worksheet for the qualified health insurance deduction, click on this link:

Missouri Health Insurance Worksheet

 

Also, if you happen to be self employed, be sure to check my post about the Missouri Self-Employed Health Insurance Tax Credit.  If you qualify for that, it’s even better for your taxes than the deduction.

 

 

Posted on by Jan Roberg

Tax Tips for Gay Couples

tax tips for gay couples

Even if you're legally married, federal tax law doesn't recognize your marriage.

There’ve been a lot a changes this past year with some states legalizing gay marriage, some authorizing civil unions, and of course the end to “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in the military.  But despite all these changes, US federal tax law still does not recognize gay relationships in tax law.  Even if you’re in a state where your marriage rights are fully recognized, you’ll still be considered unmarried for federal tax purposes and social security benefits.  These tips are for couples who are legally married, or would be legally married if they lived in a state that allows gay marriage. 

There are two main issues here that you have to deal with.  The first is working to reduce your current tax liability and the second is to ensure that you’ve got sufficient coverage for both of your retirements.  To that end, you need a tax professional and a financial advisor that can sit down with you and your partner to develop some long term and short term strategies.  Right now, if you’re thinking, “I’d never even tell my tax guy I’m gay,” then it’s time to hire a new advisor. 

Couples where both partners earn wages and have similar incomes:  are pretty straight forward for tax purposes.  You can both take advantage of IRA contributions, you’ll both receive equal social security benefits from your wage earning, you won’t lose any tax benefits from the married filing separately status, and your tax rates will be fairly comparable to folks filing as married.   In this situation, many couples just split everything evenly and that’s a pretty fair arrangement.  But, it may make sense to load all of the deductions onto one partner and let the other partner take the standard deduction. 

For example:  let’s say that Jen and Gina together would have itemized deductions of $13,000 a little more than the $11,400 they would claim as a standard deduction if they could file as married.  Filing as single they can each claim a standard deduction of $5,700.  If they’re splitting the itemized deductions, they can each claim a deduction of $6,500.  But, if we load all of the deductions onto Jen and have Gina claim the standard deduction, then together they’d have a combined deduction of $18,700 and that would save them a substantial amount of money.

Now, remember, it’s not that perfectly even.  In most cases, part of the $13,000 would be state income tax, you can’t load that onto your partner’s return, but with planning, you can put your mortgage, real estate tax, and charitable contribution deductions all on one person and enjoy a substantial tax savings.

Couples where there is self employment income:    The biggest tax issue facing sole proprietors is paying the self employment tax.  If you’re already in the 25% income tax bracket, and you add that 15% self employment tax to that, then you’re paying 40% tax on your income.  Anything you can do to reduce your self employment tax is a good thing. 

One possibility is to hire your partner as an employee.  This in itself doesn’t really eliminate your self employment tax as you’re just shifting it to your partner and paying the employer’s share.  But, hire your partner and provide health care benefits and now you’ve got something.  For example:  let’s say Jack and Dean have been together for 10 years.  Jack has modest income from a part time job but spends a lot of time helping Dean with his small business as a professional entertainer.  Dean is fairly successful and averages about $100,000 a year in income.  Jack books appointments for Dean and makes sure that Dean is where he needs to be at all times.   If Dean were to have to hire someone to do Jack’s job, he estimates that it would easily cost him $15,000 or more.  So instead, he hires Jack as an employee.  Instead of taking a salary of $15,000, Jack chooses a smaller wage but wants health insurance benefits.  Because Jack would be Dean’s only employee, Dean can afford to have his employee package include health insurance benefits.  And, more importantly, Dean could provide a health care plan that covered Jack’s partner (which happens to be Dean.)  Now Jack and Dean have just excluded all of their health care costs from self employment tax. 

Here’s why:  Health care benefits reduce the employer’s taxable income.  Health care benefits are not included in the employee’s taxable income.  It’s a win/win situation for both of them. 

Everyone’s tax situation is unique and the laws keep changing so you have to stay on top of things.  Right now though, with the tax laws as they are, doesn’t it make sense to take advantage of them instead of letting them take advantage of you?

Posted on by Jan Roberg

Missouri Tax Credit for Self-Employed Health Insurance

MO self-employed health insurance tax credit

 

One of the really fun parts of my job is finding cool tax deductions or tax credits that most people don’t know about that can really benefit people.  Here’s a cool one:  The Missouri Self-Employed Health Insurance Tax Credit.

 

The thing about Missouri Tax Credits is that most of them won’t just pop up on your computer software.  You have to actually know about them and specifically request the forms to come up.  Major things, like the Missouri Property Tax Credit will usually have a pop-up reminding you to apply for it if you meet the criteria, but most other tax credits just hide in the corner.  The Self-Employed Health Insurance Tax Credit is one of the sneaky, hide in the corner credits.

 

How sneaky is it?  To tell you the truth, I called the Missouri Department of Revenue to ask a few questions and the person on the other end of the phone had never even heard of it.  She had to go hunt down someone who knew about the Self-Employed Health Insurance tax credit before she could answer my question.  I’ve never had that happen before.  The Missouri Department of Revenue front line folks are pretty knowledgeable and quick with answers.  While I tend to stump the IRS on a regular basis (I think if they had caller ID they’d never answer my phone calls,) I’ve never stumped a Missouri DOR employee before.

 

Here’s how it works:  Let’s say you own your own company and you also pay for your own health insurance.  Normally, on your federal tax return, you can claim a deduction for your health insurance up to the amount of your business profit.  But what if your business didn’t have a profit?  Or if your business profit was less than what you paid for your health insurance?  That’s where the Missouri Self-Employed Health Insurance Tax Credit kicks in.  Whatever tax savings you lost on your federal income tax return because you couldn’t claim your self-employed health insurance will become a tax credit to you in Missouri.

 

I know that sounds pretty confusing so here’s an example:  Let’s say your federal taxable income on your 1040 was $100,000 (I like to use round numbers.)  But you couldn’t claim your self-employed health insurance because your business actually had a loss (we’ll assume the $100,000 is from your spouse’s wages and other income.)  Your health insurance cost you $6,000 for the year.  If you could have claimed that as a deduction, it would have saved you $1,500 on your federal tax return.  With the Missouri Self-Employed Health Insurance Tax Credit, you get to take that $1,500 as a credit against your Missouri state income tax liability.  How cool is that?

 

Now that was a pretty drastic example, but even so, claiming a dollar for dollar tax credit against what you missed out on from your federal income tax return is a great deal.  Here’s a link to take a look at the form:

Missouri Self-Employed Health Insurance Tax Credit

 

So you want to know the best part?  Many of the Missouri tax credits have limitations that, if missed, you don’t get a second chance to claim them.  But with the Self-Employed Health Insurance Tax Credit, if you happened to miss out on claiming this credit last year, you can go back and amend your prior Missouri tax return and still get the refund.

 

 

Posted on by Jan Roberg

IRS E-File Starts January 14th

The IRS will begin accepting e-filed individual income tax returns on January 14th.  Many people are anxious to file their returns, especially if they have big refunds coming to them.  But I’d like to issue a caution to those eager filers: don’t rush.  Here’s some common sense tips to help you hold out just a little.

1.  Do not try to file your tax return until you have all of your necessary paperwork–that means your W2s and 1099s.  It’s against the law for a professional preparer to file a return just using your check stub.  (Some companies will do a “loan” against your tax refund, that’s different, but you’ll pay a hefty fee for that.) 

2.  If you file your return without reporting all of your income, you will receive a letter from the IRS later.  It won’t be friendly either.  The headache of correcting a mistake like that is much worse than waiting a few weeks to have everything together and doing it right the first time.

3.  Your employer is required by law to send out your W2’s by January 31st.  You should have everything in your hands by February 5th.

4.  Even if you have all of your paperwork, some returns won’t be able to be filed until mid to late February because of delays.  When Congress changed the tax laws in December, it messed up the IRS’ ability to process some people’s returns.  If you itemize your deductions on a Schedule A frm, if you claim the teacher deduction, or if you claim the tuition and fees deduction; then you can’t file your return yet anyway.  (Other education credits weren’t affected.)

5.  If you’re doing direct deposit, there is no difference between whether you file on January 14th or filing on January 19th as far as how fast you get your refund.  It’s all related to the IRS cut off dates for issuing checks and direct deposits.  No difference.  It might make sense to hold off a day or two to make sure you’ve got everything you need.

For you FAFSA filers.  You want you tax return done as soon as possible so that you can include the information on your FAFSA application.  If you’re one of the many people whose return will be delayed because of itemizing, it’s okay to go ahead an prepare your return now and use the tax return information in your FAFSA and then file the actual return later once the IRS starts accepting them.

Posted on by Jan Roberg

Tax Time Savings Bonds

Grandparents can buy US Savings bonds for their grandchildren.

Grandchildren are good reasons to buy US Savings bonds.

Did you know that you buy US Savings Bonds with your income tax refund?  You can buy savings bonds for yourself or for other people, like your grandchildren for example.  Last year, you could only purchase a bond for yourself. 

How do you do it?  It’s really easy.  If you claim a refund on your 1040, you use form 8888.  It’s the Allocation of Refund form (it includes Savings Bond Purchases) to split your refund.   The bonds start at $50 and you can purchase more in increments of $25 up to $5,000 worth if you want to.  Any money that you don’t use for purchasing bonds will be direct deposited into your bank account.

For example:  let’s say that you will get an $800 refund.  You want $100 in bonds to go to each of your two grandchildren John Jones and Mary Smith.  You will fill out the paperwork with their names on the form (you don’t need their social security numbers) and the remaining $600 will be direct deposited into your bank account.  The US Savings Bonds will be mailed directly to your home in about 5 weeks. 

The bonds will earn interest for 30 years and are tied to inflation.  It’s a safe investment backed by the United States Government.  They’re not just for saving for college.  This could be a retirement savings vehicle if you want it to be. 

You can cash the bond in after one year at most banks or credit unions if you need to.  You will need to hold the bond for at least five years if you don’t want to lose the last three months of your interest though.  The current interest rate is .74% and it adjusts for inflation every six months.    

The best part, there’s no fee for investing in U.S. Savings Bonds. 

If you’ve been thinking that you need to start saving and you just haven’t done it yet, this is a great opportunity.

Posted on by Jan Roberg

1099 Rules for Landlords and Small Businesses

1099 Rules for Landlords and Small Businesses

 

Are you confused about the rules for small businesses and landlords issuing 1099’s for anyone that they’ve paid over $600 to?  Has a company asked you to fill out a W9 form because you or your business is doing some kind of work for them?  It seems like everybody is a bit confused, even the IRS.  But here’s help.

 

UPDATED JANUARY 2016
The rules have changed several times since the original post. If you’re preparing 1099s or tax returns for tax year 2016–these are the updated rules.

 

The  1099 law is actually part of the Affordable Care Act although it has nothing to do with health care.  Is your head spinning yet?  Seriously, the 1099 law states that businesses will be required to issue 1099 forms to contractors that they have paid over $600 to.

 

So who gets a 1099 MISC?  Basically, if you own a business, or are a landlord, you need to issue a 1099-MISC to anyone  that you’ve paid over $600 to for labor.  So, let’s say you pay a computer programmer to set up your office system – you’d issue a 1099 MISC.  But if you buy a computer for $1000 – then you don’t.  Confused yet?

 

Okay, here’s another situation – you issue a 1099 MISC to individuals and LLCs, but not to corporations.  So, let’s say Roberg Tax Solutions prepares your business tax return for $800.  Roberg Tax Solutions is an LLC, so you think okay, I’ve got to issue a 1099 – BUT, Roberg Tax Solutions has elected to be taxed as an S Corporation.  Say what?  Now you don’t have to issue me a 1099.  How do you keep track of that?  By looking at the W9.  Make sure all contractors you work with complete a W9 form.  It will tell you if they are a corporation or not.

 

If you need to prepare 1099s, here’s a link that will give you information on how to do it: How to Prepare a 1099

 

If you’re a landlord or small business owner you should expect that you will need to file 1099 forms for your contract laborers this year.  Start collecting information from them now so that you’ll be prepared come January.  You’ll need a W9 form, here’s a link:  W9

 

Print it out and have all of your vendors sign one.  You can be hard-nosed about this too.  No W9, no payment.  It’s that easy.

 

If a business that you provide a product or service to asks you to complete a W9 form, it is a legitimate request.  If you’re a sole proprietor and don’t have an EIN number, you may want to apply for one so that you’re not giving out your social security number all over the place.  If you’d like more information on EIN numbers, read my other post:  Free EIN

 

You can get an EIN number directly from the IRS for free.

 

One question that I’m always asked is, “Is there any way to get out of having to issue a 1099?”  The answer is, “Yes.”  If you pay a vendor with a credit or debit card, you do not have to issue a 1099.  The reason is, when you use a credit card to pay a vendor, the credit card company will be issuing a 1099K statement showing the payment you made.  So, it you want to reduce the 1099s you have to issue, use your credit card more often.

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Posted on by Jan Roberg

Making Work Pay Tax Credit

Craig

Once again this year, most taxpayers will need to file a Schedule M in order to claim the Making Work Pay Tax Credit.  Its worth up to $400 for single taxpayers and up to $800 for married filing jointly couples.  It’s the same schedule M form that you had to file last year to receive the credit; it just hasn’t gotten very much publicity lately so some people might forget about it.

Most tax software will automatically calculate it for you, but if you’re preparing a return by hand, you need to remember to include the form.  Here’s a link:  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sm.pdf

Most people who earned wages or were self employed qualify for the Making Work Pay tax credit, although if your parents claim you as a dependent then you won’t qualify.  Also, persons filing a non-resident return or persons filing a return without a work-valid social security number won’t be able to claim one either.  There are also restrictions for high-income wage earners as well.

If you need more information, here’s a link to the instructions for the form.  http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sm.pdf

Posted on by Jan Roberg

How to Stick it to My Ex with the IRS – divorce issues

Photo by Dr. John Bullas

You wouldn’t believe how often I am asked, “How can I stick it to my ex?”  People going through a divorce or breakup are so angry and hurting that it’s natural to want to strike back.  While I feel deeply for peoples’ pain and suffering, the best advice I can give to that question is don’t.  Here’s why.

The easiest way to mess up someone else’s tax return is to claim their children on your tax return before they can file theirs.  It’s that simple.  Once the children’s social security numbers have been claimed on a tax return, they can’t be used on another return.  That means your ex can’t e-file a return and can’t get the refund she’d get with the kids.  It sounds pretty nasty, but there’s a very important downside.

First, if don’t have custody of the children and they haven’t lived with you for at least six months, well then you’d be committing tax fraud.  Depending upon the severity of the fraud (especially if you received an Earned Income Credit) it’s even possible that you could see some jail time.  How badly do you want to mess with your ex?

But let’s forget the possible jail time.  Let’s examine what would happen in a regular dependency dispute.  Your ex, if she were smart (or had at least hired someone like me), would still submit her tax return claiming the children.  She’d have to mail the return in, because e-file would no longer be available to her.  Then because there would be two returns claiming the same children the IRS would issue dependency audits to both of you.  That audit letter is around eleven pages long listing several items that you’re going to have to come up with to prove that you are really the custodial parent.  The information is fairly easy for a custodial parent to access, downright impossible if you’re not.

So, although you’ve dealt your blow and messed up her refund temporarily, in the end she’ll get the money and you’ll lose the audit.  Not only will you have to pay back the tax money you received from the IRS, there will be fines, penalties, and you’ll probably be forbidden from claiming and Earned Income credit in the future (even if you would really be entitled to it.)

So, back to the original question, “Is there a way to stick it to my ex?”  The answer is yes, but it will hurt you worse.

Posted on by Jan Roberg

When Can I File My Tax Return?

tax form changes will delay returnsIf you’re expecting a refund, you want to know just how soon you can file. For most people, the earliest day that the IRS will begin accepting e-filed returns is January 14th, that’s this coming Friday. It’s important to remember that you’re not allowed to file until you have all of your W2s and other income documents. Your employer isn’t required to send them out until January 31st, but if you receive them early then it’s okay to file.

Some people though, will not be able to file their tax returns until mid to late February because the IRS still has to change some forms due to the new tax legislation that was recently passed.

The more common troublesome forms are:

Schedule A: yep, if you itemize your deductions, then you’ll have to wait to file. The big hold up here is that Congress reinstated the state and local sales tax deduction which had previously been eliminated. Because that goes on the Schedule A, everyone who files a Schedule A will have to wait.

Higher Education tuition and fees deduction (Form 8917): This was a tax deduction that was also phased out but reinstated in the tax deal. This does not affect filing your return if you qualify for the American Opportunity Tax Credit (that’s what used to be called the Hope Credit but was changed last year) or the Lifetime Learning Credit.

Educator Expense deduction: That’s not even a whole form, that just line 23 of your 1040. What I find most amusing about this is that I get to see draft copies of IRS forms before they’re published. In November, the 1040 form still had a space for the educator expense deduction because the folks at the IRS kept thinking that Congress would reinstate that one. Well, nothing happened on that and there wasn’t any discussion about extending it so they finally pulled it in preparation for filing season. It was the right thing to do at the time. Now it’s back and the form has to be changed.  (If you meet an IRS IT technician in a bar, buy him or her a drink.  You’ll recognize them by the chunks of hair missing from their heads because they’ve been pulling it out from all the stress of crazy tax law changes.)

Just because you can’t actually file your return yet doesn’t mean you can’t have it prepared and ready to go once the IRS gives the okay.  Although it’s normally illegal for a tax preparer to “stockpile” income tax returns,  the IRS is allowing preparers to hold client returns until the IRS is ready to receive them.  And of course, if you’re preparing your own return, you can finish it and hold it until the release is given.  I’ll be posting that date as soon as I know it.

Posted on by Jan Roberg

Get Your Refund Faster

Rapid refundYou may have noticed that it’s harder to get a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL) these days.  Between actions by the IRS and some bank regulations, the RAL money is pretty hard to come by.  You will still get your income tax refund, it just won’t be as fast without the RAL.  On the bright side, RAL charges are really expensive and the money you save could be worth the wait.

You’ve probably heard advertisements on TV that say you can get your refund in as little as 8 days.  It’s true, but you need to know the whole truth, it could be 8 to 14 days.  Also, if you do one of those Refund Anticipation Checks (RACs), that’s where the fees you  pay to a preparer are taken out of your refund, then that could add another 1 to 3 days onto the timeline.  I believe in “truth in advertising.”  I’m hearing a whole lot of “Get your money in as little as 8 days” and “without even paying anything up front” but I’m not hearing about the extra time added for doing that, or the extra cost.  You need to know the whole story.

One thing you should know about is timing.  Thursday is the important day.  The IRS issues checks on Thursdays.  The cutoff for determining what checks get written is the Thursday before check writing day.  That means, if you have your taxes prepared and submitted on Wednesday, and you’re doing a DIRECT DEPOSIT into your personal bank account, then you’ll receive your IRS refund in 8 days;  one week from the Thursday cut-off.  If you have your taxes prepared on a Friday, then you’ll get your refund almost two weeks later instead.     

Remember, the cycle runs on Thursdays; your refund will be computed on the first Thursday and the check will be cut on the second Thursday. 

So, the best day of the week  — in order to get the fastest refund – is Wednesday.  Now, if you file your taxes on Thursday morning, you might be okay.  If the filing is received by the IRS by noon, you’ve made the cut-off and you’ll receive your refund the next week.  The catch here is you might go into an office, file your return and have it sent before noon, but there are things called “batch systems” that may prevent your return from actually being received before noon by the IRS.  If you file on Wednesday, all those batches will be processed before noon on Thursday and you’ll receive your refund the Thursday after that. 

I always recommend filing on Wednesday over Thursday morning just to avoid the risk of being held up in the batching.  (Most preparers have no control over that.)   Of course, the important thing is to just file when you’re ready.  Don’t file before you have all of your documents.  Remember, your employer isn’t required to have the W2’s completed until January 31st.  If you happen to get your paperwork early, consider yourself lucky.

Just because the IRS issues checks and does its DIRECT DEPOSITs on Thursday doesn’t mean you will receive your money on Thursday.  If you are doing a RAC, where you had your fees withheld from your refund, then your IRS refund is going to go to a bank that works with your tax preparer and then the bank will direct deposit the money into your account.  There’s a time lag there that can be for as long as three days.  You need to keep those things in mind when you’re looking for your money.

Keep your money in mind also as you listen to those TV commercials.  “You can have your refund with no money due from you when you file.”  That’s all fine and dandy, but how much money are they keeping?  There will be a fee for the tax preparation, plus a fee to the bank for bank processing, plus a fee for completing the paperwork required by the bank.  Make sure you know how much you’re spending for that convenience.  Depending upon your situation, it may be well worth it to pay the charges, it may not be.  Ask questions, know what you’re buying so that you make an informed decision.

The fastest way to get your income tax refund, without using a loan program, is to e-file your taxes on a Wednesday and have your refund DIRECT DEPOSITED by the IRS into your personal bank account.