December - 2023 Upcoming: December 25 - Christmas Day December 26 - Kwanzaa begins January 16 - 4th Quarter Estimated Payments Due
The temperature isn’t the only thing falling this time of year. Your 2023 tax bill can also be falling with a little bit of proactive planning, but time is running out! To help you make the most of potential tax saving moves before the end of the year, this month’s newsletter features several year-end tax cutting ideas. Also have fun with the entire family by testing your
Take final year-end actions - Charitable contributions, other itemized deductions - Capital gains/losses - 401(k) contributions - Dividend income
holiday knowledge with our annual trivia quiz! Also learn about tax surprises to watch out for, and some key ingredients to be mindful of if you’re a part of a business partnership. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to someone who may be interested in a topic and call with any questions you may have.
Year-End Tax Cutting Moves to Consider
Here are moves you can make to reduce your taxable income. But the year is quickly coming to a close, so plan accordingly. • Max out pre-tax retirement savings. The deadline to contribute to a 401(k) plan to get a 2023 taxable income reduction is December 31st. So if your employer’s plan allows it, consider making a last-minute lump sum contribution. For 2023, you can contribute up to $22,500 to a 401(k), plus another $7,500 if you’re age 50 or older. Even better, you have until April 15, 2024, to contribute up to $6,500 into a traditional IRA. And as long as your income does not exceed phaseout limits, you can reduce your taxable income on your 2023 tax return. • Convert to a Roth IRA. Consider converting some or all of your traditional IRA, SEP IRA, or SIMPLE IRA into a Roth IRA. Although you pay income tax on the amount of the Roth conversion the year it is made, subsequent growth is tax-free in a Roth IRA, and withdrawals from the account are 100% tax-free after five years from the date of the conversion.
• Tax loss harvesting. If you own stock outside a tax-deferred retirement plan, you can sell your underperforming stocks by December 31st and use these losses to reduce any taxable capital gains. If your net capital losses exceed your gains, you can net up to $3,000 against other income such as wages. Losses over $3,000 can be used in future years. • Selling appreciated assets. Consider selling appreciated assets in the tax year that helps you the most. While this strategy may be hard to accomplish this late in the year, it is still worthy of consideration. To do this, estimate your current year’s taxable income and compare it to next year’s projected income. Then sell the appreciated asset in the year that will yield the lowest tax. Remember to account for the 3.8% net investment income tax in your estimates. • Review health spending accounts. If you participate in a Health Savings
Account (HSA), try to maximize your annual contribution to reduce your taxable income. Remember, these funds allow you to pay for qualified health expenses with pre-tax dollars. More importantly, unlike Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), you can carry over all unused funds into future years. If you do have an FSA, you can carry forward a maximum of $610 from 2023 into 2024 if your plan allows this. The deadline for contributing to your Health Savings Account (HSA) and still getting a deduction for the 2023 tax year is April 15, 2024. The maximum contribution for 2023 is $3,850 if single and $7,750 for married couples. If you’re age 55 or older, you can add $1,000 to your HSA contribution. While the year is quickly coming to an end, there is still time to reduce your 2023 tax liability, but only if you act now.
Have Fun With This Year’s Holiday Quiz!
Back by popular demand is this season’s holiday movie and TV trivia quiz! So while you’re waiting for your holiday dinner or just resting after a wonderful feast, break out this quiz to share with family and friends. Enjoy! • The song White Christmas, performed by Bing Crosby, was sung in a number of movies. In which movie did the song make its debut?
A: Holiday Inn. The song White Christmas was released in 1942 as part of the movie Holiday Inn. Many think that the song debuted in the movie titled
with the same name. While extremely popular, the movie White Christmas was created in part to leverage the popularity of the song. Bonus: Who won an Oscar for writing White Christmas? A: Irving Berlin • In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, what happens every time a bell rings? A: An angel gets it’s wings… Bonus: What was the name of the angel? A: Clarence • In the movie Home Alone, the family is going on vacation and accidentally leaves Kevin behind. Where were they going? A: Paris Bonus: Give yourself a point if you can name either of the thieves in the movie. A. Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) • In the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas, what three words are used to describe the Grinch? A: Stink, Stank, Stunk Bonus: Who voiced the Grinch in the famous cartoon? A: Boris Karloff, who appeared in 174 films and is known for his role as the original Frankenstein, won a Grammy award for portraying the Grinch and narrating How the Grinch Stole Christmas. • Tom Hanks played six different roles in this popular holiday movie. A: The Polar Express Bonus: The Polar Express had a number of firsts. Name
any one of them for a bonus point. A: First full-length animated movie released in IMAX format. A: First full-length movie to use animated 3D capture technology allowing creation without drawing each individual frame. A: First movie to be released with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. A: First animated movie to have a song nominated for an Academy Award. The song was titled Believe. • In the movie A Charlie Brown Christmas, what does Charlie Brown do poorly that turns out all right in the end? A: He buys a sad-looking tree. But in the end everyone gets the Christmas spirit and wishes Charlie Brown a Merry Christmas. Linus sums up the feeling: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love. Bonus: Name the comic strip made famous by Charlie Brown and its creator Charles Schulz. A. Peanuts May you and yours enjoy the holiday season with peace and joy. Results: 11 to 12 points: Deck the Halls! You are awesome. 8 to 10 points: You are dashing through the snow…no walking for you! 4 to 7 points: Ho! Ho! Ho! You are having fun besides watching holiday movies. 0 to 3 points: Holidays? What Holidays? Pass me a cookie, would you please?
Watch Out For These Unexpected Tax Surprises!
No one likes surprises from the IRS, but they do occasionally happen. Here are some examples of tax situations you could find yourself in and what to do about them. • Kids getting older tax surprise. Your children are a wonderful tax deduction if they meet certain qualifications. But as they get older, many child-related deductions fall off and create an unexpected tax bill. And it doesn’t happen all at once. As an example, one of the largest tax deductions your children can
provide you is via the child tax credit. If they are under age 17 on December 31st and meet several other qualifications, you could get up to $2,000 for that child on that year’s tax return. But you’ll lose this deduction the year they turn 17. If their 17th birthday occurs in 2023, you can’t claim them for the child tax credit when you file your
2023 tax return in 2024, resulting in $2,000 more in taxes you’ll need to pay. • Limited losses tax surprise. If you sell stock, cryptocurrency or any other asset at a loss of $5,000, for example, you can match this up with another asset you sell at a $5,000 gain and - presto! You won’t have to pay taxes on that
$5,000 gain because the $5,000 loss cancels it out. But what if you don’t have another asset that you sold at a gain? In this example, the most you can deduct on your tax return is $3,000 (the remaining loss can be carried forward to subsequent years). Herein lies the tax surprise. If you have more than $3,000 in losses from selling assets, and you don’t have a corresponding amount of gains from selling assets, you’re limited to the $3,000 loss. So if you have a big loss from selling an asset in 2023, and no large gains
from selling other assets to use as an offset, you can only deduct $3,000 of your loss on your 2023 tax return. • Getting a letter from the IRS surprise. Official tax forms such as W-2s and 1099s are mailed to both you and the IRS. If the figures on your income tax return do not match those in the hands of the IRS, you will get a letter from the IRS saying that you’re being audited. These audits are now done by mail and are commonly known as correspondence audits. Assuming you already know you
received all your 1099s and W-2s and confirmed their accuracy, verify the information in the IRS letter with your records. Believe it or not, the IRS sometimes makes mistakes! It is always best to ask for help in how to correspond and make your payments in a timely fashion, if they are justified. Please call to schedule a tax planning session so you can be prepared to navigate around any potential tax surprises you may encounter on your 2023 tax return.
Delay of New Tax Reporting Rules Could Cause Confusion
Because of a late-breaking change by the IRS in November, you may still receive an unfamiliar tax form that may need to be reported on your business’s 2023 tax return. Here’s what you need to know about this change and how it could affect you and your business. Background Credit card and electronic payment processing companies use Form 1099-K to provide information to the IRS about payments they’ve made to you if certain thresholds are met. Under the old rules, the payment processing companies would only provide payment information to the IRS is you exceeded both $20,000 in payments AND 200 or more total transactions during a year for that particular processor. Starting with the 2022 tax year, this $20,000 threshold was lowered to $600, while the 200 transaction criteria was eliminated. After receiving feedback on how burdensome this new law was going to be for millions of taxpayers and business owners, the IRS in late 2022 delayed the implementation of the new $600 threshold until 2023. The IRS in November of this year again delayed the implementation of the $600 threshold, this time with plans to use 2024 as a transition year with a $5,000 threshold before eventually enforcing the $600 threshold in 2025 or a later year.
What you should do If you receive one or more Form 1099-Ks (even if you’re not supposed to!) here are some steps to consider: • Save the form. If you receive a 1099-K, save the form! You will need to account for this information on your tax return or face the possibility of the activity triggering a correspondence audit from the IRS. • It’s a business transaction. If you receive the form due to activity on sites like Amazon, Etsy, or you are reselling tickets or taking rent payments, you are considered to be in business in the eyes of the IRS, even if you lost money on a transaction. • Capture relevant expenses. While the revenue reported on Form 1099-K must be reported on your tax return, remember that you can also include any related expenses to reduce reportable income. If you do have expenses to report, you’ll likely need to fill out Schedule C on your tax return. • Stay organized. If you receive any Form 1099-Ks, your tax return will now be more complex. But you can help by staying organized with great documentation to explain exactly what the income was that you received from third-party payment platforms.
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