Learning Center for Tax and Financial Insights

You may wish to prepay future charitable obligations before year-end and benefit on your 2017 tax return. Learn more.

Article Highlights: You can still take action to reduce your 2017 tax bill. Such actions must be completed before the end of 2017. Deductible expenses paid by credit card are deductible in the year they are charged. As the end of the year is getting close, this is a reminder that Sunday, December 31, is the last day that you can make a tax-deductible purchase, pay a tax-deductible expense, make a tax-deductible charitable contribution, or pay tax-credit-qualifying tuition or expenses for 2017. That date is only 10 days away. Although many businesses, charitable organizations and government offices will be closed for a long New Year’s holiday weekend, you still have time before then to make charitable contributions and pay deductible taxes. If you have a child in college, you can also check to see if you have paid at least $4,000 in tuition and qualifying expenses for that student during 2017. If not, you are permitted to prepay for the first 3 months of the next year’s tuition and count that payment toward your 2017 tuition credit. However, before you do that, please call this office to make sure that this strategy is beneficial for you based upon the tuition amount and your income level. If you own a small business and make a business acquisition before the end of the year, you can generally expense (write off) the entire cost. However, business acquisitions must actually be placed in service before their expenses are deductible. Thus, do not expect a deduction on your 2017 return if you take delivery after the end of the year—even if you paid for the item in 2017.

Tax reform will limit taxes as an itemized deduction beginning in 2018.

Are you paying college tuition for a child? You can prepay the tuition for the semester or quarter starting in January through March of next year. Learn more.

Filing Status Single and Head of Household Married Joint Married Filing Separate Phaseout Range $118,000 to $133,000 $186,000 to $196,000 $0 to $10,000 Example: Rosa, in the previous example, can designate her IRA contribution to be either a deductible traditional IRA or a nondeductible Roth IRA because the couple’s AGI is under $186,000. Had the couple’s AGI been $191,000, Rosa’s allowable contribution to a deductible traditional or Roth IRA would have been limited to $2,750 because of the phaseout. The other $2,750 could have been contributed to a nondeductible traditional IRA. Back-Door Roth IRAs – Those individuals whose incomes are too high to qualify for a Roth IRA contribution can make a traditional IRA contribution and then convert the contribution to a Roth IRA using an IRA conversion process, discussed later in this article, available to all taxpayers of any income level. Contribution Timing – Because income (AGI) limitations apply to IRAs, contributions can be made after the close of the year, giving taxpayers time to accurately determine their AGIs for the year and the correct amount of their IRA contributions. The contribution must be made no later than the unextended due date for filing a return, which is April 15. However, if the due date falls on a weekend or holiday, the due date is extended to the next business day. So, 2017 contributions must be made by April 17, 2018. Penalties – There is a 6% penalty on amounts contributed to an IRA in excess of the allowable contribution amount. This penalty continues to apply annually until the excess is corrected. There is also a 10% early distribution penalty on the taxable amount withdrawn from an IRA before reaching age 59½. However, some or all of the 10% penalty is waived under certain circumstances, such as for first-time homebuyers, to pay for higher education expenses, to pay for medical insurance by some unemployed individuals or when a taxpayer becomes disabled. For those wishing to retire early, the penalty can also be waived if distributions are a series of substantially equal payments over the taxpayer’s life and continue until the taxpayer reaches age 59½ or for a minimum of five years, whichever is later. Rollovers – From time to time a taxpayer may need to take funds from the IRA. If they are returned within 60 days, the distribution is not taxable and the 10% early withdrawal penalty will not apply. However, this is only allowed once in any 12-month period. This restriction does not apply to direct trustee-to-trustee transfers when the IRA owner is switching trustees or investments. CAUTION: All IRA accounts are considered one, so this rule applies collectively to all IRA accounts, meaning that an individual cannot make an IRA-to-IRA rollover if he or she has made such a rollover involving any of his or her IRAs in the preceding 12-month period. Conversions - To take advantage of the tax-free benefits of a Roth IRA, an IRA owner can convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA any time, but taxes must be paid on the amount of the taxable traditional IRA funds converted to a Roth IRA. Timing is key when making a conversion, because one would want to do that in a low-income year or make a series of conversions so as to spread the income over a number of years. If contemplating a conversion, it should be accomplished as early in life as possible to provide a longer period of tax-free accumulation. If an IRA conversion is made and then the IRA owner later regrets making the conversion, the Roth IRA can be recharacterized as a traditional IRA up to the extended due date of the return, which for a 2017 return would be October 15, 2018. Typical reasons for recharacterizing include not being able to pay the tax on the conversion or if the IRA has dropped in value after the conversion. Retirement Distributions – For both traditional and Roth IRAs, distributions can begin once a taxpayer reaches age 59½ without penalty. For traditional IRA owners, once they reach age 70½ they must begin taking what is referred to as a minimum required distribution (RMD) each year. The minimum amount is based upon current age and the value of the IRA account. Roth IRAs are not subject to the RMD requirement. Failing to take a distribution of the required minimum amount may result in a 50% penalty of the amount that should have been withdrawn but wasn’t. However, the IRS will waive the penalty under certain conditions. TIP: In any post-retirement year when your income is below the taxable threshold, you have an opportunity to withdraw from the IRA tax-free. You should consider doing so even if you don’t need the income. You can put it away in a savings account until you do need it. As you can see, the rules regarding IRAs are complex, and this article has only covered the most commonly encountered ones. Please give this office a call if you would like to discuss how IRAs would apply to your particular circumstances or if you are in need of assistance planning for your retirement.

Figuring Gain or Loss from a Sale – The first step is to determine how much the home cost, combining purchase price and the cost of improvements. From this total cost, subtract any claimed casualty losses and any depreciation taken on the home. The result is your tax basis. Next, subtract the sale expenses and this tax basis from the sale price. The result is your net gain or loss on the sale of the home. If the result is negative, the sale is a loss. However, losses on personal-use property such as homes cannot be claimed for tax purposes. If the result is a gain, however, subtract any home-gain exclusion (discussed above) up to the extent of the gain. This is your taxable gain, which is, unfortunately, subject to income tax and possibly to the net-investment income tax as well. If you owned the home for at least a year and a day, the gain will a be a long-term capital gain; as such, it will be taxed at the special capital-gains rates, which range from zero for low-income taxpayers to 20% for high-income taxpayers. Depending on the amount of your income, the gain may also be subject to the 3.8% net investment income surtax that was added as part of the Affordable Care Act. The tax computation can be rather complicated, so please call this office for assistance. Another issue that can affect your home’s tax basis (discussed above) applies if you owned your home before May 7, 1997 and purchased it after selling another home. Prior to that date, instead of a home-gain exclusion, any gain from a sale was deferred to the replacement home. Although this is now rare, if it matches your situation, the deferred gain would reduce your current home’s tax basis and add to any gain. Another Twist – If you previously used your home as a rental property, the law includes a provision that prevents you from excluding any gain attributable to the home’s appreciation while it was a rental. The law’s effective date was the beginning of 2009, which means that you only need to account for rental appreciation starting in that year. This law was passed to prevent landlords moving into their rentals for 2 years so that they could exclude the gains from those properties. Some landlords did this repeatedly. Records – Assets that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, including your home, need your attention, particularly regarding records. When figuring your gain or loss, you will, at a minimum, need the escrow statement from the purchase, a list of improvements (not maintenance work) with receipts, and the final escrow statement from the sale. When you encounter any of the issues discussed in this article, you may need additional documentation. A few other rare home-sale rules are not included here. As you can see, home-sale computations and tax reporting can be very complicated, so please call this office if you need assistance.