According to the National Weather Service, an estimated 190 million Americans have recently been under heat advisory alerts. Maybe the extreme heat has prompted you to consider making your home more energy efficient. If so, there’s a cool tax break that may apply. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act [...]
Last week, the Newburg CPA team and their families spent the afternoon at Kimball Farms. We had a blast playing mini golf, driving bumper boats, eating burgers, and spending time together!
Typically, joint ownership of property is beneficial to an estate plan. In fact, there are several advantages to joint ownership for surviving family members. There are exceptions, however, and joint ownership may not be the ideal solution for all estate plans. Two types of joint ownership for spouses As [...]
A revocable trust — sometimes known as a “living trust” — can provide significant benefits. They include the ability to avoid probate of the assets the trust holds and facilitating management of your assets in the event you become incapacitated. To obtain these benefits, however, you must fund the [...]
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a warning to taxpayers about a new tax scam that aims to extract sensitive information by misleading people into thinking they are owed a refund. This particular hoax involves the victim receiving an official-looking cardboard envelope via mail or delivery service, with [...]
Many businesses in certain industries employ individuals who receive tips as part of their compensation. These businesses include restaurants, hotels and salons. Tip definition Tips are optional payments that customers make to employees who perform services. They can be cash or noncash. Cash tips include those received directly from [...]
One of your primary estate planning goals may be to pass as much of your wealth to your family as possible. That means sheltering your estate from gift and estate taxes. One way to do so is to make gifts during your lifetime. Current tax law may make that [...]
On March 29, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Rev. Rul. 2023-2, which affirms that the assets of an irrevocable grantor trust not includable in the grantor’s gross estate do not receive a basis adjustment under Internal Revenue Code Section 1014. In the revenue ruling’s fact pattern, an irrevocable trust [...]
Are you charitably inclined? If so, you probably know that donations of long-term appreciated assets, such as stocks, have an advantage over cash donations. But in some cases, selling appreciated assets and donating the proceeds may be a better strategy. That’s because adjusted gross income (AGI) limitations on charitable [...]
If you’ve been thinking about ways to save on medical expenses, now may be the perfect time to open a Health Savings Account (HSA). Thanks to persistent inflation, the IRS recently announced historic bumps to contribution limits for HSAs, making planning for health savings more beneficial than ever! What [...]
