5 QuickBooks Reports You Need to Run in January
Does your accounting to-do list look like a clean slate, or are critical 2017 tasks still nagging?
Getting all of your accounting tasks done in December is always a challenge. Besides the vacation time you and your employees probably took for the holidays, there are those year-end, Let’s-wrap-it-up-by-December-31 projects.
How did you do last month? Were you ready to move forward when you got back to the office in January? Or did you run out of time and have to leave some accounting chores undone?
Not All Interest An Individual Pays is Deductible
The rules for deducting interest vary, depending on whether the loan proceeds are used for personal, investment, or business activities. Interest expense can fall into any of the following categories:
On Friday, December 1, 2017 the Senate was voted on their version of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. Rumblings out of Washington DC indicate that the GOP leadership has reached an agreement that the House will put the Senate version to a vote without reconciling the differences between the House and Senate versions. As a result, the Senate version would prevail and it would become the new tax law if the President signs the legislation, which he has said he will do. But no one has a crystal ball and we will be following this closely.
Tax is Zero on any long-term capital gains for taxpayers within the 10% or 15% tax bracket
Taxpayers whose top marginal tax bracket is lower than 25% enjoy a long-term capital gain tax rate of zero. That’s correct – the tax on any long-term capital gains for taxpayers within the 10% or 15% tax bracket is zero! This can provide you with the opportunity to sell some of your winner stocks and pay no tax on the resulting gain. Long-term capital gains apply to stocks and other capital assets you have owned for a year and a day or longer.
Scams and Phishing on the Rise
Almost every day the IRS issues notices to taxpayers and tax preparers warning of new scams seeking access to individuals’ financial information and ID information, which the scammers want to use to file fraudulent tax returns, gain access to bank accounts, or steal credit card information to make fraudulent purchases.
Enhance Your Cash Flow, Enhance Your Business
Cash flow is ultimately one of the most important factors of a business that far too many people aren’t paying enough attention to. Cash flow maintenance is about more than just knowing how much money is coming in versus how much money is going out. If your business is very close to true profitability, this ultimately still won’t mean a thing if you’re dealing with clients who are slow to pay. This can seriously impact your momentum, and worse — your chances at long-term success.
You may think a natural or man-made disaster will never happen to you, but it can be a nightmare when it does. This current hurricane season is a good example, not to mention the wildfires in the West, the tornadoes in the Midwest, plus the potential for inevitable earthquakes.
When You Should Stop Doing Your Own Accounting
Running your own business is a complicated affair with a wide range of different “moving parts” to concern yourself with, but many people don’t realize how many of them ultimately lead back to your finances until it’s far too late.
Premium Tax Credit Explained
Almost everyone is required to be insured or pay a penalty as part of Obamacare. Unfortunately, this created a substantial financial burden for lower-income families. So, in order to alleviate this situation, Obamacare included a subsidy, referred to as the premium tax credit (PTC), to help them pay the cost of the insurance which is based on family size, household income in relationship to the federal poverty.
One major difference between being an employee and being self-employed is how you deduct the expenses you incur related to your work. If you are self-employed, you’re able to deduct expenses on your business schedule, but is you are an employee you are limited to deducting them as itemized deductions.
