Miscellaneous Tax Stuff

Now that tax season’s over, it’s time to get back to other parts of life that got pushed to the side from January to April. One of those is writing articles for this blog. One thing I wrote about a number of months ago was ‘miscellaneous tax stuff’, and I think it’s time to do that again, so here goes…

Gift Taxes-did you know that if you make a gift of money or property to somebody else, you may need to file a gift tax return? You didn’t know that? Well, they say you learn something new every day, so you’re good to go! Check out a brief IRS YouTube video for more information, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPnR3U8Wk04

W-2 Reporting of Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage-beginning in 2012, employers must report the cost of group health coverage on employees’ W-2s (sent to employees by 1/31/13). IRS has more information at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0%2c%2cid=257101%2c00.html

Start Planning Now for Next Year’s Tax Return-it’s never too soon for tax planning. Here are some things you can think of now
-did you have a large overpayment or balance due on your 2011 tax return? You should think about adjusting your withholdings, to have less/more tax withheld
-organize your recordkeeping, to make it easier at tax time. I think that part of the stress people feel when it comes to taxes has to do with searching for information they need. If you have a set place to put all tax related papers, you won’t have to remember where you put everything. And keep your prior year returns nearby, too.
-if you’re close to itemizing deductions, think about “bundling” your deductions into one year. This could include making an early mortgage payment or paying property tax before its due date.
-start thinking about (JayTheCPA) finding a tax professional (JayTheCPA) sooner, rather than later. Did you like my subliminal advertising?!

Name Changes After Marriage or Divorce-if your surname changed due to marriage or divorce, check out this IRS YouTube video for more information http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LibPOtwWAGc

Estimated Taxes-this is something that new business owners forget about, until it’s tax time, and they find out that not only do they owe a load of tax, but a penalty too, for not making quarterly estimated tax payments. Check out this IRS YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM5XxKCATv0

I hope you found at least one piece of ‘stuff’ helpful to you. Please pass along this information to somebody else who may benefit, and let me know if you have any interesting tax stuff to share!