The Finance Factor

The trucking industry is one of the single most important trades key to the stability of our national economy. Everything, it seems, moves by truck in America. Because of this, the tax code has many deductions and credits specific to trucking.

• It’s imperative that a truck driver maintains organized records. Because of the complications of trucking industry tax codes, truck drivers are frequently the targets of IRS audits.

• The basic tax strategy for a self-employed trucker is that everything that has anything to do with your truck is a deduction. This includes apparent items like fuel and gas down to the rags you use to wipe a dipstick.

• Itemizing deductions does not cause audits, but a long, itemized list does make the IRS more curious. So, when it comes to your truck, keep receipts of every expense you are going to list. Keep a receipt book in case you forget something. In the event you lose or forget a receipt for an item, write down the day, date, and time of the expense. Include a detailed description of the expense, along with its cost. This should satisfy the IRS should you be audited. Just don’t have too many receipts written in the book, instead of actual ones. Continue reading ‘Tax and Finance For Truckers’ »

Owning a rental property may be advantageous in some ways. The income you get from rental real estates can sometimes be a substantial amount, and this could increase your tax liability. However, landlords can reduce their income tax on their profits. This is possible through investments. To know more about rental tax deductions, read on.

There are two types of investors: passive and real estate professional. The losses of real estate professionals are deductible against all types of income, be it passive or non-passive. If the losses are passive, then the landlord is only allowed to deduct up to $25,000 against the rentals’ income. Conversely, losses that exceed up to $25,000 can be carried forward to the following year. Continue reading ‘What You Should Know About Rental Property Tax Deductions’ »

There are very few tax loopholes these days that allow an employer a deduction which is tax free to employees. Health insurance is one such tax free employer provided benefit. But there is another which is overlooked by employers. Achievement awards.

If structured properly, employee achievement awards can provide a tax deduction for the employer while remaining tax free to the employee. There are certain hurdles that must be overcome in order for the achievement award to be tax free. It all starts with the establishment of an Achievement Awards Program. Such a program may be a qualified program or an unqualified program. Continue reading ‘How to Give Your Employees Tax Free Achievement Awards’ »

Property taxes have always been abused by local governments. Up and up they go, but homeowners have rarely really fought the rise since home prices were going through the roof. That’s obviously changed significantly in the last few years, but these taxes keep going on up. If that infuriates you, and it should, you should fight to have them lowered.

Ah, the good times. You could buy a home and watch it appreciate 15 to 25 percent a year. The good old days were here in a big way, but it couldn’t last and it didn’t. 2007, 2008 and 2009 all saw a huge correction in real estate as the bubble popped and prices plummeted. Despite the drop in value, property taxes in most places have remained the same or actually gone up! How can this be? Continue reading ‘Why You Should Fight Your Property Tax’ »

Working consecutive jobs in one year should not cause you any extra stress at tax time. However, working concurrent jobs in a calendar year can cause some grief.

When you have two employers simultaneously, chances are that they are withholding your taxes as though they were your only employer. The end result could be that your withholding falls short at tax time and you wind up owing the Internal Revenue Service some money.

Let’s draw an illustration – John and Mary are friends and they each earn the exact same amount per year. For the sake of math, let us say that they each earned $90,000 in the same calendar year. John earned his money by working two jobs, simultaneously. Mary made her money through two employers as well, but in her circumstance she switched from one employer to the other. She did not work two jobs at the same time (concurrently), but worked one right after the other (consecutively). Continue reading ‘Beware of Tax Drawbacks of Working Two Jobs’ »

1031 is a derived name for tax deferred exchange, with its parent name coming from Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. In other words, 1031 tax deferred exchange falls under the Section 1031 of Internal Revenue Code. 1031 is specially established for business tycoons and real estate barons. Established in the 1920’s, almost all tax payers use this as a trustworthy and powerful financial tool for generation and enhancement of wealth, as well as for money in today’s times.

It exclusively enables tax payers to sell their property, investment, income or any other valuable assets in exchange of similar kind of property or asset. It also gets its name from ‘like-kind’ or ‘tax-saving’ tool. Rather than calling it a simple sale, 1031 tax deferred exchange is a transaction where exchange of two assets takes place. It is not a mere buying and selling of property, but it focuses on how the property owner would want to sell his piece of property in exchange of another property, by deferring the ‘capital gains’ taxes to the newly obtained ‘like-kind’ property; thus a result of the property swap. Continue reading ‘Explanation of the Workings of a 1031’ »

You are allowed to give away £3,000 in every tax year, and need not to pay Inheritance Tax on it. It is also allowed to carry forward any part or full £3,000 exemption to the next year, if you do not use it before the next year. So, if you have not used your exemption before you can give away £6,000 in a tax year.

This annual exemption can also be used with some other exemptions like civil partnership/wedding ceremony gift exemption. Under this sort of gift exemption, you can give your children £5,000 when they tie a nuptial knot or bind themselves in a civil partnership, and similarly, they can also be given £3,000 in annual exemptions. However, small gifts exemption, and annual exemptions cannot be used together if you want to give someone £3,250 for this purpose.

When it comes to small gifts, you are allowed to give the gifts of £250 value to all those whom you want to give within a tax year, and they are not liable for any sort of Inheritance Tax.

You must keep in mind that a larger sum for instance of £500 can be given, and claim can be made for the first £250 exemption, and this exemption can also be used with some other exemption when you want to give it to some person. It means this small gift exemption can be combined with some other sort of exemption as well. Continue reading ‘Gifts That Are Exempt From Inheritance Tax’ »

Has your property value gone up according to the county, when you know it actually went down in this current economy? You don’t have to take their word for it, you can appeal.

If you’re thinking about appealing a county property appraisal, here are a few tips from a leading Ohio tax appraiser.

Around the triennial homeowners receive a notice of the change in their property values either up or down, this is the time when you want to appeal your real estate tax appraisal.

Please note: Not all counties and states are not the same, so this is just a rough guideline for appealing your county tax appraisal. Check with your local county to learn their specific steps for appeal.

* Your fist step is to contact your local appraisal company. Have them come and do an appraisal of your home. If their appraisal is lower you may have a case.
* Your next step is to contact your county auditor’s office, to request an “informal meeting” which is usually run by an independent appraisal company contracted through the auditor’s office. The meetings are usually held in a public place. There may be several meetings set up for the same time, if others are appealing at the same time.
* The appraiser should give the homeowner a copy of the information the appraiser has for their home for homeowner verification. the data should be based mostly on an exterior view of your home. The only way the appraiser can get into your home with the homeowners permission. Homeowners are not required to let the tax appraiser into their home.
* Check over the report for inaccuracies and discrepancies and let the appraiser know what you’ve found. For example the report may list two bathrooms, when you only have one, or newly remodeled rooms when you haven’t done any recent remodeling. Continue reading ‘Appealing a County Tax Appraisal’ »

The oddest thing is happening to homeowners across the country. The value of their homes has been dropping the last three years, but their property taxes have been going up! If this describes your situation, it is time to fight back.

The first thing to understand about property taxes is “rates are rates”. This simply means that if the agency controlling your property taxes raises the tax rate, there isn’t much you can do about it. Municipalities are facing huge budget shortfalls and rate increases are one of the ways they making up for the shortfall. This doesn’t mean that you can’t fight your property tax bill. Continue reading ‘Fighting Your Property Tax Increase’ »

Pulling out your receipts, calculating interest, and making sure you have your W-2 forms at hand, can be tiring at tax time. You are bound to overlook something or make some little mistake. The only problem is that a little mistake can cost you a lot when it comes down to preparing your tax income tax return. What you need is a checklist of the most common tax preparation mistakes to avoid.

•Avoid math errors. Small math errors can be costly when preparing your income tax return. Review the entire math until you are absolutely positive that it is one hundred percent correct. Just moving a decimal point or inadvertently adding a zero could cause grave consequences.

•List all your employers. If you worked more than one job, be certain that you include all of them on your return. If you forget about an employment source, you could be charged with income tax evasion.

•Avoid miscalculating charitable amounts. Charitable giving is deductible on your income tax, but be certain to list all charities correctly so you will receive the proper credit. The Internal Revenue Service has become very circumspect in recent years in regard to charitable deductions. Continue reading ‘Avoid Common Tax Preparation Mistakes’ »