The South Bay Tax Report
January 2015
Mike, Gary, and the ALWAYS hard-working staff at Wayland & Vukadinovich LLP
wish you a wonderful New Year!
Who, we hear you ask, are those hard-working staff members that we always talk about?
Well, many of you have your tax returns prepared by Senior Tax Manager Susan Patterson or
Senior Tax Accountant Sonia Tramel.
Both Susan and Sonia are Enrolled Agents, tax preparers that have had intensive tax instruction and passed IRS-mandated requirements and tests before they are allowed to place their fingers on your returns.
Tax Manager Shelly Milam, a CPA, has been with us for longer than many of us can remember.
Gary and Mike can remember IRS code sections, but anything else, not so much.
Shelly usually just works tax seasons.
Our bookkeeping staff includes Debbie Reasor
(who was actually here BEFORE Mike was)
and Midge Leatherbury, and many of you know office manager Gina Stevens who daily lets Gary and Mike know who REALLY runs the office.
We've scraped the FAQs this month and decided to celebrate the new year with some suggested
New Year Tax Resolutions you may want to adopt.
Resolution #1
I will file my tax returns early!
Many of you like to wait to the last minute.
Many of you believe it's best to extend.
We here at
Wayland & Vukadinovich LLP
believe it's best to file early.
Get organized, get that tax information over to us, and
let's get this whole process OVER!!!
The IRS has announced that filing season will begin
January 20th.
Get your refund back early, or
get the answer as to how much you owe, and
get that information to us while Mike and Gary are still
happy and functioning.
Resolution #2
I will start contributing to my 401k!
Mike and Gary get at least five calls each week asking
"What can I do to reduce my taxes."
Well, here's a silver bullet, an easy answer, a road to tax heaven and financial solvency.
Okay, we're a bit dramatic, but
enroll in your company's 401k plan.
You save taxes, you save for retirement, and your company often matches your contributions.
Resolution #3
I will take my computer security seriously!
Yes, we know, this isn't really a tax resolution but there is SOME tax connection - see our discussion about tax identity theft at the bottom of this newsletter.
Take steps to improve your passwords.
We suggest
"Gary and Mike are Great Tax Preparers"
but any variation on that will improve your security and will likely reduce the risk that hackers from a country somewhat north of South Korea breaches your firewall and accesses information about your 2014 tax deductions.
Resolution #4
I will actually maintain records this year about what I spent for charitable contributions, business meals, entertainment, business miles and other business expenses.
We know it's not you, but the most frequent answer here at
Wayland &vukadinovich LLP
to our question as to
"How much did you donate to charity" is
"The same as last year."
While that may, in fact, be true, perhaps you should actually keep careful records so we can prove it to our great friends at the Internal Revenue Service.
Resolution #5
I will only take one IRA Rollover this year!
This may not apply to you, but those of you who have IRAs and spend time withdrawing and rolling them over to other IRAs, note that the IRS has recently said that they have re-interpreted the IRA rollover rules. You can only rollover an IRA ONE TIME in a 12-month period unless that rollover was a trustee to trustee rollover.
If you have absolutely no idea what that sentence means, either you don't have an IRA OR you need to call Gary and Mike to make sure you keep your resolution this year.
Resolution #6!
I will lose 25 lbs.
Oops. we may have gotten that from "Biggest Losers"
or "Dr. Oz."
No comment from us here at
Wayland & Vukadinovich LLP,
Resolution #7
The Final Resolution
(Thank goodness!)
I will inform Gary or Mike if I have signature authority over a foreign bank account, if I have an asset in a foreign country or if I take a Booze Cruise to Cabo San Lucas.
Okay, we made up that last part
(although we'd love to see pictures of you dancing after your 12th margarita), but we are serious (as is the IRS) about disclosure of foreign bank accounts and CERTAIN foreign assets.
If you're not clear about your disclosure requirements,
ask us!
Some Last Minute News
On December 19th, with but twelve days left in 2014, your friends in Congress passed the
Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014.
That's a great title, right?
In any event, they retroactively EXTENDED certain tax provisions for 2014. These included:
A $250 teachers' deduction for classroom supplies;
Possible debt discharge on your principal residence;
IRA-to-Charity exclusion and
A possible above-line deduction for qualified tuition expenses;
Possible deductions for mortgage insurance premiums;
Tax credits for certain residential energy improvements.
On the business side, those sly legislators -
Enhanced Section 179 with a $500,000 limit;
Retained 50% bonus depreciation and
Retained Research Tax Credits, Work Opportunity Credits, and certain alternative fuel credits.
Our friends at the IRS indicate that Congress' delay in passing these extenders could cause tax season to get off to a slow start - we'll keep you up-to-date so you can show off what you know to all of your friends.
The IRS also announced the 2015 mileage rates.
If you use your car for business, you can deduct 57.5 cents per mile!
Wow!
That's up from 56 cents in 2014. Obviously, the IRS hasn't watched the price of gas spiraling downward.
Charity mileage still is deducted at 14 cents per mile.
We never did understand why your car costs less to drive to church meetings than it does to business meetings, but that's clearly what the IRS believes.
The IRS announced that they had 1.6 million cases of
tax-related identity theft in
JUST THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2013.
Yes, that's 2013.
They are still clueless as to how many tax fraud cases they have in 2014.
That includes Rashia Wilson who stole $20 million in fraudulent refunds and posted on her Facebook pages,
in caps,
I'M RASHIA, THE QUEEN OF IRS TAX FRAUD.
And finally, the IRS indicates that they received 112 million individual returns thru April 15 of 2014.
Of those, about 101 million were electronically filed,
and of those,
about 100 million were filed by
Wayland & Vukadinovich LLP
which is why it is better to file early as Mike and Gary are in a MUCH better mood in February than April.
The IRS also indicates that they had 420 million hits to the IRS.GOV website,
and we suspect that at least sixty-seven of those who reached out actually got answers to their questions.
Get organized, get ready, and get filed EARLY.
Should you lose interest in our New Year Resolutions, simply UNSUBSCRIBE at the bottom of this page, and
we'll never try to micro-manage your resolutions again.
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