Our Blog

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. 

As we quickly approach the deadline for filing 1099-MISC, it is time to consider whether your business is ready to file.
 
The due date for furnishing 1099-MISC statements to recipients and to the IRS for the 2019 tax year is January 31, 2020. Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income, is an informational return used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to report payments made to non-employee individuals or unincorporated businesses during the calendar year. As the filing of Form 1099 remains a hot topic with the IRS, it is more important than ever to consider whether you are required to file Form 1099 in the course of your trade or business. 
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Wednesday, the IRS released Notice 2019-59 which provides cost of living adjustments for retirement plans for 2020. 
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401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and Thrift Savings Plan contribution limits have increased $500 to $19,500. The annual catch-up limitation for employees over age also increases $500, to $6,500.
 

Yesterday the IRS released inflation adjustments for the 2020 tax year. 

The standard deduction for married filing jointly taxpayers is increasing $400 to $24,800. It will be $12,400 ($200 increase) and $18,650 ($300 increase) for single and head of household taxpayers, respectively.

We are changing the way we internally access our clients' QuickBooks Online accounts and would like to request you to make an update on your end.  Currently you’ve invited your accountant as the accounting firm for access to your QBs. We would like to change this to our new firm account which is qbo@masonrich.com. 

​You can complete this change by taking the following steps: