Using Your Portal

As most of you should already know, we have implemented the use of secure web portals over the past year.  These portals allow you to access your tax returns prepared by us as well as any supporting documentation that was provided to us.  The portals have proven to be a great convenience to many of our clients when they've needed to provide info to banks, mortgage brokers, and other third parties to obtain loans, refinance mortgages, etc.  We wanted to send this reminder so that all of you understand how to access your own secure portal.

Everyone will access their portal from our website - www.sunderlandcpa.com.  Along the right side of our site is a CLIENT CENTER.  Make sure the "Client Login" radio button is selected.  

If you are an individual tax client (as opposed to a business tax client), your Username is your email address (usually the primary taxpayer's email address) and your password is your SSN. 

If you are a business tax client, you were provided your login credentials via email when we completed your 2010 taxes.  If you are a business tax client AND an individual tax client, we are in the process of merging the two portals into one portal so that you can see everything via one login.  If this applies to you and we have contacted you with your new login credentials, please contact us and we will get that setup for you.

Once you have logged into your portal, you will see a "My Tax Documents" and a "Document Presentation" folder (some may only see the Doc Pres folder).  Please disregard if it says that there are "0 new documents".  You can go into these folders to find either your tax returns and/or your supporting documents.

Retirement Plan Distributions 

Tapping into your retirement funds should be considered seriously - tap too hard and your risk running out of money too early; tap too early or at the wrong time and you may end up with a large tax burden that you may have avoided.  We want to help you make the most of your savings so here are some helpful tips:

• Create a Plan!  It's extremely important to create a financial plan for retirement that estimates how much you can afford to spend annually and how your retirement assets should be invested (we work with several very reputable investment advisors, so please contact us if you need a referral)
• Avoid Penalties on Withdrawals - by the time many of us retire, much of your wealth may be in tax-deferred retirement plans, which means there are strict rules regarding withdrawals - especially the 10% early withdrawal penalty (Simple IRA's may get hit with a 25% penalty!).  Generally you can avoid this penalty by waiting until you are age 59-1/2.  Some company-sponsored plans may have addt'l requirements. 
• Stretch out the Tax Benefits - what you do with your employer-sponsored retirement account once you leave the company or retire can have a big impact on the growth of these funds.  You generally have three options - you can leave them in the employer's plan, transfer them to an IRA, or cash them out.  Cashing out is least desirable as you will get taxed on the whole lot and lose out on future tax-deferred growth.  Leaving them in your company's plan is ok, but transferring it to an IRA typically offers many more choices for investments.
• Company Stock - if your employer-sponsored retirement plan includes company stock that has appreciated considerably over time, you may save a bunch in taxes if you can transfer that stock to a taxable brokerage account (not all plans allow this, though).  In this scenario, you are taxed on the cost basis of those shares upon the distribution.  However, the appreciated value is now eligible to be taxed at long-term capital gains rates, and not until you sell it.  If you simply wait until your RMDs start and the stock is sold to provide cash for your RMD, then you are hit with ordinary income tax rates on the entire appreciated value!

Cost of College

I recently read an article that discusses the "Net Price" of attending college and while I was anticipating the article to explain how much higher the true cost is over the "advertised" price I was surprised when they actually talked about the actual cost being lower!  The reason for this is that the reality is many students pay less than a college's published tuition price and many times a lot less.  Figuring out how much less a family may be expected to have to pay is the big question.  That's why beginning in October of this year, every undergraduate college and university in the U.S. that participates in federal student aid programs must have what's called a net price calculator on its website.  The calculators base their estimates on what students in similar situations to yours actually paid the prior year.