Posted by Patrick Moreau on June 1, 2020 in Business
Income tax tips from services? Even if you hire someone else to prepare your tax return, you’ll need to do some of the advance work yourself—and the earlier you start, the better. Round up your receipts and check that you’ve received all the forms you need from employers and financial institutions. Last year’s tax return can be a good guide for making sure you aren’t missing any important information. For 2020, the deadline for filing taxes and making deductible contributions to an IRA or health savings account has been moved to July 15.
Let’s start with retirement accounts. Employer-based accounts such as 401(k) and 403(b) accounts allow you to lower your taxable income easily. That’s because every dollar you put into these accounts is not taxed until you withdraw the money from your account — and that reduces your tax burden each year you make a contribution. The benefit here is that if you wait until you have retired to withdraw money from your 401(k), your income will be lower because you’ll no longer be drawing a salary. The result? You’ll be in a lower tax bracket, which means that the money you withdraw will be taxed at a much lower rate than it would’ve been if you’d had to pay taxes when you earned it.
Businesses can take tax write-offs on purchases of business equipment, machinery, vehicles, and sometimes even real estate. These write-offs can sometimes be taken in the first year you own and use the equipment. The two most common types of this accelerated depreciation are Section 179 deductions and bonus depreciation. Section 179 deductions allow you to immediately deduct the costs of certain assets when you put the assets in service. The maximum deduction was increased to $1 million in 2018 under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Equipment, machinery, and certain real estate purchases can qualify. Discover additional details at https://greentree.tax/best-tax-preparation-services-in-houston/.
“Flip houses and make big bucks” scream the headlines. The premise is simple – buy real estate with little down, fix it up, and sell it quickly. What could be easier? Well, easy or not, one thing the promoters rarely tell you is that you’ll pay taxes on any profit you make if you are selling investment property and not the home you live in (your principal residence). If you flip houses or things like furniture for a profit, here are some tax implications and tips about your taxes, and possibly how to lower them.