Effective Tax Planning Tips for Businesses and Individuals for the Remaining Year 2018

So, US citizens have concluded yet another tax return filing season and the last thing they want to have on their mind at this moment is taxes. However, it is never too early to begin planning for the future.

Listed below are a few things that might help you this year at the time of filing taxes and the next year, particularly with taxes still fresh on your minds:

Check Your Tax Return With a Certain Level of Cynicism: It is usually a wise idea to overview the tax returns, whether individual or business, particularly if you have hired a tax preparation company to do it on your behalf.  A few things to look out for: Contribute more towards your retirement plans, keep an eye on additional deductions, and re-check your financial withholdings.

A warning: Your situation may possibly differ in the year 2018 in comparison with 2017 keeping in mind the outcomes of current tax reform. Needless to say, the increasing of the standard deduction may imply fewer people getting itemized.

This would make way for opportunities like ‘bunching’ deduction – making your expenditures two times in order to qualify for the deductions one year whilst frisking it the subsequent year. For instance, bunch deductions work well in case of charitable deductions, wherein people have substantial flexibility with regards to the money they give as a donation as well as the timing.

Consider Capital Losses: The stock market has been up for about 9 years now and luckily investors did not face a lot of money-losing situations. This may not be the case now considering the fact that market could be spending the most of their 2018 in the red. Therefore, it is advised to re-invest the proceeds into anything else apart from the stock market.

In other terms, a realized loss offsets the realized gain with regards to the tax dealings. If your losses surpass your gains, up to 3000 USD of the excess amount can be subtracted from the usual earnings yearly. However, if the losses are more than 3000 USD, you can carry them forward to the subsequent years. These stipulations relating to the capital gain and loss scenarios were not impacted by the tax reform.

FACT: According to a survey by Buzz60, it has been found out that 51% of the US citizens approve of the latest tax reform and this figure has been increased this year from 37%, which was calculated in December.

Take in Account Roth Conversions: Generally, any kind of withdrawal from Roth Individual Retirement Account does not levy any tax. Therefore, Roth withdrawals are not going to guide you in a higher tax slab and they would not possibly impose any taxable amount on your Social Security advantages.

The prominent downside, whenever you transfer or “convert” conventional IRA funds into a Roth, is that you have to pay tax on the sum of money that you are moving. Nevertheless, with the equity markets flat to lower, now may be a good time to do so. Furthermore, courtesy of the tax reform, average income-tax rates are shaved, therefore the tax bite is likely to be a little less than previously. If you opt to carry out a Roth conversion, make use of non-IRA funds to cover the costs of it.

Become organized: It is aggravating to discontinue what you are doing and look for bills as well as statements in order to file an accurate tax return. It is one factor why in such cases a certain level of organizational forethought could actually be of great help.

It is wise to have a solid record keeping model for submitting bills and statements all year round. Create replicates of your returns and keep them in a secure spot for future reference. For those who have digital copies, look into options like storing them up on the hard drives, cloud-based platforms, or perhaps additional programs, which are independent of your PC (that can get hacked or stolen).

The general guideline here is to keep tax returns as well as all the other supporting paperwork for a minimum of 3 years, although a number of items must be held for a longer time like records demonstrating the amount of money you invested in your house or other acquisitions, particularly when you haven’t traded them till now.

Come Up With Tax-Refund Strategy: If you like most other people have obtained a refund and have spent it for either paying off your loan or deposited it in your savings account, it may not be a viable plan for the next year as the refund for the subsequent year could be lesser. If you are amongst the people who depend on their tax refunds to get their finances in order, it is better to devise a backup plan.

Furthermore, make up your mind if you want to continue getting a large amount of tax refund every year and make every possible effort to keep up with the amount then. Refunds are good; however, they signify interest-free loans, as well.

Keep an Eye on State-level Changes: Tax reform enforced at the federal levels is going to have an effect on state tax rules, as well. Over 50% of the US states link their tax codes with federal guidelines and often make changes depending on what takes place in Washington.

Tax reform has taken away a number of exemptions as well as deductions at the federal levels, however, it additionally reduced federal income-tax rates. On those grounds, a lot of states will have to reduce their individual tax rates to limit citizens like those that no longer consider it beneficial to itemize from having to spend more. States that have a large amount of estimated revenue increase on account of federal tax reform comprise of Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Georgia, Michigan, Maryland, Colorado, and Arizona.

Recommended: S Corporation – A Comprehensive Guide to Filing Taxes

Looking for more clarity on the latest tax reform or perhaps seeking external help to prepare tax returns (business or individual), get in touch with our expert team at Cogneesol! You can call us at +1 646-688-2821 or email at [email protected].