Tax Season  

The wait is over!  As we ring in the new year tonight, tomorrow we will mark the fact that my life is over for the next three and a half months (well, it's not that bad).

What this means for all of you is it marks the time that you need to start compiling all of your documents that you'll need to bring us soon.  This is the perfect time to make sure you have all of your charitable donations well documented, your mileage logs completed (for self-employed folks), medical expenses documented, childcare costs documented (including detailed provider information), etc.   

We will also be sending out your Tax Organizer this coming week (for returning clients).  This year we will be emailing it to you and will be using the primary taxpayer's email address that we have.  If you do not receive your Organizer by January 9th, please first check your spam folder and then contact us.  If you were one of the few that actually liked filling out the organizer online last year, please let us know and we can post the Organizer to your Online Client Access web portal.

Please remember, the Tax Organizer is simply a tool to help you organize your tax documents and information.  It is NOT required to be filled out.  Use it as much, or little, as you desire.  At a minimum, we find most like to use it as a checklist since it shows the various items that we reported last year.

Engagement Letters will be sent out by the middle of January.  The Engagement Letter serves as the agreement between yourselves and our firm and spells out the work that we will perform for you.  It will also list the tax preparation fee.  If your situation has changed since last year, a Change Order may be needed to adjust your fee.   

Please note that this year we will not be taking any appointments after March 25th!

This means ALL information must be into us by then to ensure we can get them done on time.  Unfortunately for us, tax season is extended again this year since the 15th falls on a Sunday!

This tax season we will also be having our referral raffle again where we give away some great prizes (to be determined)!  All clients who refer a new client to us will get their name entered into the raffle.  The more client you refer the more entries you get!    

We look forward to seeing all of you soon! 

Charitable Organizations

Even though it's the last day of the year, most of us have already given to many charities - both local, national, and international - throughout the year.  Of course, if you're still looking to reduce your tax bills a bit further, and do want to donate to your favorite organizations, today is the last day to get the deduction on your 2011 taxes!  The good news is you can write the check today, or donate online with a credit/debit card, and the deduction will still qualify for 2011.

At The Sunderland Group, we have made it a goal of ours each year to contribute as much as possible to various organizations.  In fact, we budget for it!  Here are some of the organization to which we have donated in 2011 - There With Care, The Moffitt Cancer Center, North Boulder Little League, GS Cycling, The Colorado Trail Foundation, Buffs4Life, St. Baldrick's, ARC, The Salvation Army, Goodwill, and many others.  If you would like to learn more about any of the organizations that we donate to regularly, please contact us.

A few things to keep in mind when you donate - PLEASE keep good records!  If making monetary donations, get a letter or receipt from the organization; if making donations of "stuff", document this as best you can.  We typically maintain a spreadsheet where we list all items donated (give it your best guess - ex. 15 men's shirts, 6 pairs of women's shoes, etc.) and then we use the accepted values which can be found on many of the bigger organizations websites - i.e. Goodwill.org, Salvationarmy.org, etc. - for each item and this allows us to come up with a reasonable deductible amount.   

Even if a lot of the "stuff" you donate - especially when it's older clothes - is dumped into several large garbage bags, I always say it's better to "make things up" (best guesstimate) now rather than later! 

2012 - MAKE A BUDGET!

If you are one of the many who always seem to put off putting a budget together, then this is the time to make good on this commitment to yourself and your family (and your business!).  We have all heard it many times that in order to truly accomplish our goals, we need to write them down and create a plan to achieve them.  I see many of our clients achieve great things personally and more times than not they have put a plan together, many times hiring a coach to help them with their plan and to keep them accountable, and then I see the fruits of these efforts.  Many of you are finishing that first marathon, or setting a new personal best at an Ironman, but very seldom to I see folks putting their financial plan together and hiring a "coach" to help them implement and stick to that plan, revising it when needed.

I know the excuses, I've made them myself!  Even though we may not want to see what a sound budget and financial plan may reveal, we owe it to ourselves and our families to figure out how to get on track.  We all have various goals - buy a new/first house, pay for the kids to go to college, buy a rental property in the mountains or on a beach, RETIRE! - so it's time to get serious about them and be proactive in achieving them.

There are many software programs out there that will help you do a better job at tracking your income and expenses - we are looking at implementing Mint.com for our family - and we have great relationships with financial planners/investment advisors, so please contact us if we can help get you started! 

The Beatles - Help!

We thought that this headline might get your attention!  While we love the Beatles, we really couldn't find any other way to truly incorporate them into our newsletter, so bear with us.

Financial and tax related decisions are being made all the time by all of us.  Some of the decisions we make have tax consequences, many do not.  However, we want to make sure all of our clients feel confident talking to us when they are making/considering these decisions during the year.  We are here to HELP, when you need someone (ok, no jokes!).

Even though we may not be able to directly help with many of these decisions, we can help you understand what/if the tax consequences might be, but more importantly we most likely will know of someone that can help you.   

One of the things we've always prided ourselves on is the network of professionals with whom we have developed relationships over the past several years.  So whether you are looking to buy/sell real estate, do some remodeling, obtain/refinance a loan, forming a new business, need to start/update/revamp your financial/investment plan, need to create/update your wills and/or estate plan, etc, please contact us and we can refer you to someone you can trust.