Investors may soon be able to preserve their retirement war chest for longer. The Securing a Strong Retirement Act, a bill originally pushed in 2021 but which may finally pass this year, would push the starting point for required minimum distributions (RMDs) to 74 and 75 years of age. That means retirees could stave off being required to tap into their tax-deferred … Read More
The IRS Issued Inaccurate Child Tax Credit Tax Forms
Approximately 36 million families received the advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments last year, the tax form documenting those payments could contain errors. While the agency has yet to identify how many people were mailed inaccurate letters, the mistake is understood to be limited to a small subset of taxpayers who recently relocated or changed bank accounts in December. The … Read More
Lenders Should Not Report Student Loans Discharged Under ARPA
Lenders and services of most student loans should not file Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt, for loans in 2021 through 2025. On Tuesday, The IRS stated that borrowers do not have to include these forgiven amounts as income for tax purposes. Additionally, the guidance in Notice 2022-1 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-22-01.pdf) pertains to a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), … Read More
Social Security COLA takes a Hit – Medicare premiums
Seniors get the biggest Social Security raise in years and it’s already eaten up by a 14.5% increase in the Medicare premium Premium Increases With a 14.5% increase, the Part B premium for a single individual — with income less than $91,000 — is slated to rise from $148.50 in 2021 to $170.10 in 2022. Since Medicare premiums increase with … Read More
Inflation Causes Changes in 2022 Retirement Plans
As we enter a new year it is important to note some of the changes you may see in terms of Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and 401(k) contributions. Inflation is the primary contributing factor to these changes. During inflation, prices and the value of the dollar fluctuate. Contribution limits refer to the amount of money that you can put towards … Read More
IRS Readies Refunds for Unemployment Compensation Overpayments
The Internal Revenue Service announced today it will issue another round of refunds this week to nearly 4 million taxpayers who overpaid their taxes on unemployment compensation received last year. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which became law in March, excluded up to $10,200 in 2020 unemployment compensation from taxable income calculations. The IRS has been reviewing the … Read More
QuickBooks Price Increase
QuickBooks has announced a new pricing structure, and we want to give you a heads up. The price increase will go into effect on July 15th for all new subscribers. If you are on a wholesale account and are billed directly from QuickBooks, you will receive a notice on July 1st with your new rate to take effect in August. If you … Read More
More PPP Confusion
The Justice Department is launching a probe into PPP lending calculations. While the program has been a lifeline for many small businesses, many of its rules were unclear. One of the many challenges was how to account for federal, state and local taxes. Some lenders under-accounted for payroll taxes leading to a leaner loan total. Others over-accounted, meaning, depending on … Read More
New IRS Stimulus Tax Breaks and Economic Relief
The new economic relief law passed by Congress at the end of 2020 provides a bevy of tax breaks for individuals and businesses. This includes several extensions and modifications of provisions in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act. The changes in the economic relief law are many, so the following is just a brief overview of … Read More
Is your password strong enough?
A weak password is still one of the most common ways hackers break-in. Thanks to sophisticated brute-force-attack software readily available online, hackers can try tens of millions of possible password combinations per second. For example, hacking software can guess a five-character password in under three hours. If you only use lowercase letters, it’s 11.9 seconds. You need to have a … Read More
- Page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2