Report Those Foreign Financial Connections!

FinCEN is the acronym for the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. FinCEN is a government-wide, multisource, financial intelligence and analysis network tasked with detecting money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and other financial crimes. To do its job, FinCEN must collect financial data from a multitude of sources, including each U.S. person with connections to foreign financial transactions. This has resulted in a number of reporting requirements imposed upon taxpayers; many taxpayers are unaware that...

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Year-end Capital Gains Strategies

2011 has produced some significant gyrations in the financial markets that have had an impact on everyone’s portfolios. But for tax purposes, gains and losses are not measured by the increased or decreased value of your portfolio, but by gains and losses recognized from the sale of capital assets during the year. So you still have until the end of the year to structure your gains and losses to suit your particular tax situation. Conventional wisdom has always been to minimize gains by selling “losers” to offset gains from “winners,” and, where...

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Business Benefits Abound This Year

There are an abundant number of provisions that provide tax relief to small businesses this year. Just so that you don’t overlook any of these benefits, or in case your business would like to position itself to take advantage of some before the close of the year, here is a brief rundown on many of the business benefits that are available for 2011. Some of these provisions are currently set to expire after December 31, 2011. Research Tax Credit - A tax credit of up to 20% of qualified expenditures for businesses that develop, design, or improve...

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Year-End Tax-Planning Moves for Businesses & Business Owners

Expensing Allowance (Sec 179 Deduction) – Businesses should consider making expenditures that qualify for the business property expensing option. For tax years beginning in 2011, the expensing limit is $500,000, and the investment ceiling limit is $2,000,000. Without Congressional intervention, these limits are scheduled for a significant drop in 2012. That means that businesses that make timely purchases will be able to currently deduct most, if not all, of the outlays for machinery and equipment. Additionally, for 2011, the expensing deduction...

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Year-End Tax Planning Moves for Individuals

Employer Flexible Spending Accounts – If you contributed too little to cover expenses this year, you may wish to increase the amount you set aside for next year. Keep in mind, however, that you can no longer set aside amounts to get tax-free reimbursements for over-the-counter drugs. Capital Gains and Losses – We can employ a number of strategies to suit your specific tax circumstances. For example, some taxpayers may be in the zero percent capital gains bracket and should be looking for gains that benefit from no tax. Others may be affected...

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It's Time for Year-End Tax Planning

We have compiled a checklist of actions based on current tax rules that may help you save tax dollars if you act before year-end. Regardless of what Congress does late this year or early next, solid tax savings can be realized by taking advantage of tax breaks that are on the books for 2011. For individuals, these include: • the option to deduct state and local sales and use taxes instead of state and local income taxes; • the above-the-line deduction for qualified higher education expenses; and • tax-free distributions by those age 70-1/2...

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