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In today’s day and age a large majority of the future workforce will at one time or another attend college. Whether it ends up being the foundation for their future job or simply a stepping stone to finding out what they really want to do. Unfortunately, as we have seen, that schooling is far from cheap. Most students attending college are taking on debt to cover the costs or, if lucky enough, finding scholarships to help defray some of the ever increasing costs. Thanks to our tax code, most taxpayers are afforded some small deductions for those costs in the

The Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized a rule that, effective December 1, 2016, will make significant changes to the overtime regulations in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As you know, employees covered by the FLSA must receive overtime pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate of not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay, unless otherwise exempt. The FLSA's "white collar" exemptions exclude certain executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) employees, and outside salesperson, from the federal minimum wage and overtime rules. Currently, to qualify for exemption, white collar

All of us are aware that owning a home has some definite potential tax benefits. Mortgage interest and property taxes are deductible on your personal income tax return. However, how do we make your home be MORE or a tax benefit on your return? Tax Considerations Interest deductions seem to be a pretty straight-forward item on your tax return. The interest amount is provided by your mortgage company each year on form 1098. This amount is then carried onto Schedule A and any tax benefit carried onto your form 1040. But what are you missing? The equity in your home

Income tax may be the last thing on your mind after a divorce or separation. However, these events can have a big impact on your taxes. Alimony and a name change are just a few items you may need to consider. Here are some key tax tips to keep in mind if you get divorced or separated. Tax Law Considerations Child Support and Alimony. If you pay child support, you can’t deduct it on your tax return. If you receive child support, the amount you receive is not taxable. If you make payments under a divorce or separate maintenance decree

As the Internal Revenue Service continues to endure more and more budget cuts, they continue to look to find new areas for additional tax revenue. Although overall individual and business audit rates remain very, very low (average individual rates of audit are .84% and average business rates of audit are .60%), the Department has increased focus in several areas which have brought in large revenue dollars. Payroll and compensation has been one such area. The Department has made many departmental changes in its focus of this area. In the past the Department has been lenient on wiaving penalties and enforcement.

With all the complications in today’s tax code there is no doubt that many options exist to save taxes. On that same note, many chances exist for us to pay more taxes than we legally need to. Good tax planning throughout a taxpayer’s life can potentially save millions in taxes. The most well known and widely used form to “save taxes” is to attempt to defer them until later in life when the taxpayer is usually in a lower tax bracket. Many avenues exist to do this, from IRA’s, Traditional 401(k)’s to 1031 Exchanges on property sales. All of these

In today’s digital age we all continue to use more and more online services and continue to trust our technology, but do we really know who we are “talking” to? Is anyone safe? The Internal Revenue Service recently suspended its website which was designed for individual with identity theft due IT being compromised by hackers! Taxpayers have once again been advised to stay on high alert through the end of the 2016 tax-filing season against callers who threaten taxpayers, just one of the Internal Revenue Service’s “Dirty Dozen” list of scams, yes its that bad that the Service has a

The end of 2015 saw, as years in past, the passing of several retroactive tax laws. For the first time in several years, the legislation was also proactive and made tax law changes that carry into future years. This will hopefully make tax planning a bit easier as we can focus on the laws and not the uncertainty of what the laws will be. For businesses there are several items which will affect many businesses. The two biggest changes relate to asset purchases. The expensing of assets (also known as section 179) has been made permanent and will be increased