Congress recently passed and the President signed the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011. This act temporarily extends the two percentage point payroll tax cut for employees by continuing the reduction of their Social Security tax withholding rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent of wages paid through February 29, 2012. more…

Here are 4 ways to Help Your CPA and Reduce Your Taxes:

1) Have a Year End Planning Meeting with Your CPA

This meeting can be in person or over the phone, it really doesn't matter.  The only thing that matters is that it happens.  Most individual income taxpayers are on the cash basis.  This means, with some limited exceptions, for a taxpayer to take advantage of a tax strategy, it needs to happen in that tax year. This is where most of the heavy lifting is done, with the tax planning.    more…

Recently in baseball, a Yankee fan caught Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit ball and now he may have to pay the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) tax money on the few gifts the Yankees gave him.  These items included tickets, signed bats, baseballs, and three signed jerseys.  The tax bill may be as high as $13,000! more…

According to the Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day this year is April 12, 2011.  This is the day you stop working for the government and start working for yourself. This includes federal, state and local taxes. Unfortunately this is three days more than it was last year.

According to the Tax Foundation, "Americans will pay more in taxes in 2011 than they will spend on groceries, clothing and shelter." That's amazing.   more…

In December, 2010 President Obama signed into law the tax bill which extends many of the Bush-Era federal income tax cuts and the Pension Protection Act of 2006. This law has extended the provision that allows some people to make qualified charitable distributions from their IRAs. more…