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​Alyssa Hodges, CPA •

As you prepare your QuickBooks file for your accountant, make sure you don’t have any other changes that need to be made in 2019 before sending your accountant a copy of the file. If you use QuickBooks Online, be sure to communicate when you are done making changes to your accountant. 
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​As you wait for your tax return to be prepared, you want to make sure you don’t make any changes to the past year. A simple solution is to add a closing date and password in QuickBooks. 
 
To enable a closing date:

Pollyanna King, CPA, MST •

As you pour through your checkbook register and piles of receipts for tax reporting items, you may need to make a list of your 2019 charitable donations. For people who file using the itemized deduction method, and report your donations on Schedule A instead of using the standard deduction, you should have a list with the charity’s name, the date and the amount that was given followed by a grand total for your record of 2019 charitable donations.

Angela Campbell, CPA •

This world is becoming more and more digital every day. Technology is  changing at such alarming rates that it is difficult to keep up sometimes. Many of us have Facebook accounts, LinkedIn accounts, Apple Icloud and other online storage accounts.  Instead of cash, checks, and credit cards many people are using Venmo or Zelle to pay their bills. Virtual currencies like Bitcoin are being bought and sold for investment purposes as opposed to stocks and bonds. Purchases are made with virtual currencies and valuable website domains have ongoing subscriptions that may lapse if no one knows their value or even that they exist. Have you ever pondered what happens to the information stored in your online accounts or what will happen to your bitcoin investment if no one knows where to look for it when you become incapacitated or pass away? Are there accounts opened out there in the black hole of the internet that you may not want anyone to see or know about?  What will happen to that information when you are gone?
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Alyssa Hodges, CPA •

The new year has been rung in and I’m sure your first thought in 2020 was, “2019 is over, I need to get my accountant my tax forms STAT!” However, you may have to take a breather and wait for everything you need to be ready. What should you wait for? It depends on the type of taxes you’re filing and what types of income you have.

Individual Taxes

In most cases, individuals should wait until they think they have all of their information together before giving it to their accountant.

If you are an employer who does not make use of an automated payroll system, the IRS has recently released a new Tax Withholding Assistant to help you figure out how much to withhold from your employees’ paychecks.
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Alyssa Hodges, CPA •

The new year has been rung in and I’m sure your first thought in 2020 was, “2019 is over, I need to get my accountant my tax forms STAT!” However, you may have to take a breather and wait for everything you need to be ready. What should you wait for? It depends on the type of taxes you’re filing and what types of income you have.
 
Business Taxes

​Businesses typically have their tax information prepared much earlier than individuals. In many cases, business information flows onto an individual taxpayer’s tax return which is why the filing deadlines are usually earlier.

​The IRS has released a new Form W-4 for 2020. This form is provided to employers by their employees to authorize the proper amount federal income tax to be withheld from the employee’s paycheck. The previous version of this form was believed to be confusing because an employee had to come up with a number of allowances and the employer would use those allowances to calculate withholdings.
 

Lena Rozzi, CPA •

If you own or manage a rental property, chances are that you’ve heard of depreciation before. Once you’ve determined your depreciation rates, expensing it year-after-year can be pretty straightforward. However, if you decide to sell your property, any depreciation that you’ve taken will come back to you as a depreciation recapture. While the concept of depreciation recapture is more complicated than depreciation expense, real estate investors will benefit from understanding how depreciation recapture will affect your tax liability to avoid surprises when it comes time to file your tax returns.
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By the time a lot of taxpayers get around to thinking about taxes, it could be too late to be proactive, and all you can do is close your eyes and write that check! By taking a look at your financial situation now, you may be able to take advantage of some tax saving strategies before the end of year to improve your tax outcome.