Under the Affordable Care Act, there are new reporting requirements for the employer to report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan. For years after 2011, employers generally are required to report the cost of health benefits provided on the Form W-2. All employers that provide “applicable employer-sponsored coverage” under a group health plan are subject to the reporting requirement.
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Category: Blog
Top 5 Problems with your Estate Plan
Top 5 problems that arise when you leave money to your family upon your death and the unexpected consequences that would cause you to roll over in your grave
1. Heirs recklessly spend their inheritance: Failure to leave your estate to your heirs in a trust means that your family “wins the lottery” upon your death. Your spouse and/or children may recklessly spend their inheritance within months or years, which is what most lottery winners do. A trust can control what distributions are made to your surviving spouse and/or children after your death and also delay the distributions over a number of years.
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2012 Expiring Tax Incentives
Tax | Estate Law Planning – Articles
2012 Expiring Incentives
2012 began with great uncertainty over federal tax policy and now, with the end of the year approaching, that uncertainty appears to be far from any long-term resolution. A host of reduced tax rates, credits, deductions, and other incentives (collectively called the “Bush-era” tax cuts) are scheduled to expire after December 31, 2012. To further complicate planning, over 50 tax extenders are up for renewal, either having expired at the end of 2011 or scheduled to expire after 2012. At the same time, the federal government will be under sequestration, which imposes across-the-board spending cuts after 2012. The combination of all these events has many referring to 2013 as “Taxmeggedon.”
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Ohio is Cracking Down on Unpaid Use Tax
Unpaid Use Tax
The State of Ohio is aggressively looking for businesses that may owe Ohio Use taxes. In addition to pursing out-of -state businesses who should be collecting and remitting Use Tax to the State of Ohio, the Department of Taxation is now looking for Ohio businesses that may not have paid use tax on purchases of property used in Ohio.
Use Tax is a tax on the storage, use or other consumption of tangible personal property in Ohio. The tax is a compliment to the Ohio Sales Tax. In general if you have paid Ohio Sales Tax on a purchase you would not owe Use Tax on the purchase.
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Why Trusts Aren’t Just for the Rich
Trust fund babies aren’t just born to millionaires and billionaires. They’re also sons and daughter of everyday people with a solid financial plan.
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Aging Parents, Children Avoiding Critical Talk About Money
Holidays can present ideal opportunity to jumpstart financial conversations.
Only a quarter of U.S. adults with children talk regularly with their own parents about financial matters according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the American Institute of CPAs. Thirteen percent never have the conversation and 45 percent talk about finances only annually or less often.
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Delaying Funding Of Pension Contributions Will Save Taxes
On January 1, 2011 nearly all of the Bush era tax cuts will expire. Thus taxes will automatically increase in 2011 without any action being required by congress. All of the marginal tax rates will be increased, with the highest income tax bracket going from being taxed at a marginal rate of 35% to a rate of 39.6%.
Knowing this, there are significant planning opportunities to save taxes by deferring certain deductions which could be taken in 2010 into 2011. One major deduction which can be shifted into future years is the deduction for pension contributions.
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Tax Relief Act – Cincinnati Tax Planning Tips
Congress has approved and the President quickly signed a multi-billion dollar tax cut package, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (2010 Tax Relief Act) (H.R. 4853). The new law follows through on the framework agreed to on December 6 by President Obama and GOP leaders in Congress. The 2010 Tax Relief Act extends the Bush-era individual and capital gains/ dividend tax cuts for all taxpayers for two years.
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Tax Planning Part I – Divorce-Home Buyer
Home Buyer Tax Credits
The National Association of Home Builders has set up a website to find answers to your questions about the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers and $6,500 tax credit for qualified repeat home buyers.
The “new” tax credit is available for qualified purchases with a binding sales contract in place on or before 4/30/2010 and closed by 6/30/2010. For qualified military, Foreign Service or employees of the intelligence community, these dates are extended one year.
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Tax Planning Part II
Higher Education Costs
The deduction for higher education costs expires at the end of 2009. In addition the American Opportunity Credit replaces the Hope Credit with an increase in the maximum tax credit from $1,800 to $2,500 for 2009 and 2010. Income phase-out levels are raised to $160,000 of adjusted gross income (AGI) for joint filers and $80,000 of AGI for single filers. Also new is the change to make 40% of the tax credit refundable which should enable lower income taxpayers to get a tax refund for 2009 and 2010.
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