CPA Blog

The PATH Act provides tax relief for 2015 and beyond

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Published: Tuesday, 22 December 2015 08:27

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

On December 18, the Senate passed — and the President signed into law — the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), which the House had passed on December 17. The act extends certain tax relief provisions that expired at the end of 2014. In many cases, it makes the breaks permanent.

These provisions can produce significant savings for taxpayers, but you may need to act soon (by December 31, 2015) to take advantage of them on your 2015 tax return. Here’s a brief summary of the extended breaks that may be most likely to benefit you or your business.

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You still have time to set up your 2015 retirement plan

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Published: Wednesday, 16 December 2015 12:08

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

As a business owner, you shoulder many responsibilities — but have some perks as well. One benefit worth considering is setting up your own retirement plan that allows you to make larger contributions than you could as an employee.

For example, the maximum 2015 employee contribution to a 401(k) plan is $18,000 — $24,000 if you’re age 50 or older. Compare these limits to the amounts available to a business owner (that is, a “self-employed” individual) under:

• A profit-sharing plan, for which the 2015 contribution limit is $53,000 — $59,000 if you’re age 50 or older and the plan includes a 401(k) arrangement, or
• A defined benefit plan, for the maximum future annual benefit toward which 2015 contributions can be made is generally $210,000.

More good news: As long as you set up one of these plans by December 31, 2015, you can make deductible 2015 contributions to it until the 2016 due date of your 2015 tax return.

Additional rules and limits do apply. For instance, your employees generally must be allowed to participate in the plan, provided they meet the requirements for doing so.

Why you should contribute more to your 401(k) in 2015

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Published: Thursday, 10 December 2015 10:57

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

Contributing to a traditional employer-sponsored defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plan, offers many benefits:

• Contributions are pretax, reducing your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), which can also help you reduce or avoid exposure to the 3.8% net investment income tax.
• Plan assets can grow tax-deferred — meaning you pay no income tax until you take distributions.
• Your employer may match some or all of your contributions pretax.

For 2015, you can contribute up to $18,000. If your current contribution rate will leave you short of the limit, consider increasing your contribution rate through the end of the year. Because of tax-deferred compounding, boosting contributions sooner rather than later can have a significant impact on the size of your nest egg at retirement.

If you’ll be age 50 or older by December 31, you can also make “catch-up” contributions (up to $6,000 for 2015). So if you didn’t contribute much when you were younger, this may allow you to partially make up for lost time. Even if you did make significant contributions before age 50, catch-up contributions can still be beneficial, allowing you to further leverage the power of tax-deferred compounding.

© 2015

All income investments aren’t alike when it comes to taxes

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Published: Thursday, 03 December 2015 08:56

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

The tax treatment of investment income varies, and not just based on whether the income is in the form of dividends or interest. Qualified dividends are taxed at the favorable long-term capital gains tax rate (generally 15% or 20%) rather than at the applicable ordinary-income tax rate (which might be as high as 39.6%). Interest income generally is taxed at ordinary-income rates. So stocks that pay qualified dividends may be more attractive tax-wise than other income investments, such as CDs and taxable bonds.

But there are exceptions. For example, some dividends aren’t qualified and therefore are subject to ordinary-income rates, such as certain dividends from:

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