Pay medical expenses with tax-free dollars

"FSA" stands for Flexible Spending Account. Many companies offer FSAs as part of their benefit package. And if you're eligible but not using one, you could be missing out on a way to reduce your health care costs.

An FSA lets you set aside pre-tax dollars from your paycheck to pay for health care costs that are not covered by regular health insurance. As well as paying for deductibles and co-pays, you can use your FSA dollars for a range of other health care expenses. These include such things as eyeglasses and dental work.

Dollars you put into your FSA don't count as taxable income, so you save the tax you would have paid on those earnings. Sometimes there's a secondary benefit. Because your income is lower, you might find yourself in a lower tax bracket or eligible for tax breaks that phase out at certain income levels.

FSAs have one drawback. It's called "use it or lose it." You'll forfeit any unspent money in your FSA at the end of each plan year. Some companies have a 12-month plan year, usually ending on December 31. Other plans allow you an extra 2½ months beyond year-end to spend the prior year's balance. With a little planning, you can use up your dollars without much problem.

If your company offers an FSA, it's worth looking into. Check with your benefit coordinator to see what items are covered and to find the plan limits. Starting in 2013, the amount that can be contributed to a health FSA is limited to $2,500 per year (indexed annually for inflation).

Essential Windows 7 Shortcuts (Re-run From April With Corrections)

Business owners focus a lot of attention on building better products. When their products are hot, the company does well, despite other shortcomings. Certainly, new and better products are essential, but focusing on building a better business -- one that readily adapts to change and quickly responds to crisis may be even more important. How can you build a better business? Consider the following strategies.

• Manage capital needs. Growing businesses have an appetite for capital. Two ideas for managing capital are outsourcing some processes and managing existing capacity more effectively.

• Identify the right product and customer mix. Having the products customers want at the time they want them and in the number, color, location, and quantity they need, is a challenge. Get continuous feedback from customers to help you get your mix just right.

• Actively develop and maintain a network that keeps you in the mind of suppliers, present customers, and future customers.

Every business has an opportunity to distinguish itself by doing something better than its competitors. Providing the best service, shortest cycle time, most variety, or best quality requires procedures that can deliver every day to every customer. Improving your processes to deliver what no competitor is delivering to customers is a key strategy in building a better company.

• Use your employees wisely. Encourage sharing of knowledge and skills. Continuously develop and train people. Measure individual performance and reward achievement and good ideas.

Building a better business requires more than a good product. Take the steps necessary to make sure your business will thrive in an ever-changing world.

Prom has become a financial event

The spending on prom includes the clothing (dress or tuxedo), limo hired for the event, professional hair and makeup services, dinner, and, of course, the corsage or boutonniere.

Average costs differ in the various parts of the country. Families in the South expect to spend $1,047; those in the Northeast expect to spend close to $2,000; those in the West will spend $744; and those in the Midwest will spend $696.

 Major Tax Deadlines

For May 2012 

May 15 - Deadline for calendar-year exempt organizations to file 2011 information returns.

May 31 - Deadline for IRA, SEP, SIMPLE, Roth IRA, MSA, and education savings account trustees to file annual statements (Form 5498) with the IRS, with copies to participants.

NOTE: Businesses are required to make federal tax deposits on dates determined by various factors that differ from business to business.

Payroll tax deposits: Employers generally must deposit Form 941 payroll taxes (income tax withheld from employees' pay and both the employer's and employees' share of social security taxes) on either a monthly or semiweekly deposit schedule. There are exceptions if you owe $100,000 or more on any day during a deposit period, if you owe $2,500 or less for the calendar quarter, or if your estimated annual liability is $1,000 or less.

Monthly depositors are required to deposit payroll taxes accumulated within a calendar month by the fifteenth of the following month.

Semiweekly depositors generally must deposit payroll taxes on Wednesdays or Fridays, depending on when wages are paid.

For more information on tax deadlines that apply to you or your business, contact your Nohre & Co., S.C. Account Manager @ 715-834-2225.