Bunching Your Deductions Can Provide Big Tax Benefits
If your tax deductions normally fall short of itemizing your deductions or even if you are able to itemize, but only marginally, you may benefit from using the “bunching” strategy.
The tax code allows most taxpayers to utilize the standard deduction or itemize their deductions if that provides a greater benefit. As a rule, most taxpayers just wait until tax time to add everything up and then use the higher of the standard deduction or their itemized deductions.
If you want to be more proactive, you can time the payments of tax-deductible items to maximize your itemized deductions in one year and take the standard deduction in the next.
For the most part, itemized deductions include medical expenses, property taxes, state and local income (or sales) taxes, home mortgage and investment interest, charitable deductions, unreimbursed job-related expenses, and casualty losses. The “bunching strategy” is more commonly associated with medical expenses, tax payments and charitable deductions, although there are circumstances in which the other deductions might come into play. There are many opportunities to bunch deductions, and the following are examples of the bunching strategies most commonly used:
Medical Expenses - You contract with a dentist for your child’s braces. The dentist may offer you an up-front, lump sum payment or a payment plan. By making the lump sum payment, the entire cost is credited in the year paid, thereby dramatically increasing your medical expenses for that year. If you do not have the cash available for the up-front payment, then you can pay by credit card, which is treated as a lump-sum payment for tax purposes. If you use a credit card, you must realize that the credit card interest is not deductible, and you need to determine if incurring the interest is worth the increased tax deduction. Another important issue with medical deductions is that only the amount of the total medical expenses that exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) is actually deductible. If you are caught by the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), then only the amount that exceeds 10% of your AGI is actually deductible. So, there is no tax benefit in bunching medical deductions if the total is less than 7.5% of your AGI (10% if taxed by the AMT).
If the current year is an abnormally high-income year, you may, where possible, wish to put off making medical expense payments until the subsequent year when the 7.5% (10%) threshold is less.
Special Note: Beginning in 2013, the medical income threshold increases from 7.5% to 10% for taxpayers under the age of 65, so that change needs to be factored into your planning.
Taxes - Property taxes on real estate are generally billed annually at mid-year, and most locales allow the tax bill to be paid in semi-annual or quarterly installments. Thus, you have the option of paying it all at once or paying in installments. This provides the opportunity to bunch the tax payments by paying one semi-annual installment or two quarterly installments and a full year’s tax liability in one year and only paying one semi-annual installment or two quarterly installments in the other year. In doing so, you are able to deduct 1-½ year’s taxes in one year and 50% of a year’s taxes in the other. If you are thinking of making the property tax payments late as a way to accomplish bunching, you should be cautious. The late payment penalty will probably wipe out any potential tax savings.
If you reside in a state that has state income tax, the state income tax paid or withheld during the year is deductible as a federal itemized deduction. So, for instance, if you are paying state estimated tax in quarterly installments, the fourth-quarter estimate is generally due in January of the subsequent year. This gives you the opportunity to either make that payment before December 31st, and be able to deduct the payment on the current year’s return, or pay it in January before the January due date and use it as a deduction in the subsequent year.
A word of caution about the itemized deduction for taxes! Taxes are only deductible for regular tax purposes. So, to the extent you are taxed by the AMT, you derive no benefits from the itemized deduction for taxes.
Charitable Contributions – Charitable contributions are a nice fit for “bunching” because they are entirely payable at the taxpayer’s discretion. For example, if you normally tithe at your church, you could make your normal contributions during the year and then prepay the entire subsequent year’s tithing in a lump sum in December of the current year, thereby doubling up on the church contribution one year and having no deduction for charity in the other year. Normally, charities are very active with their solicitations during the holiday season, giving you the opportunity to make the contributions at the end of the current year or simply wait a short time and make them after the end of the year.
If you think a “bunching” strategy might benefit you, please call this office to discuss the issue and set up an appointment for some in-depth strategizing.
Job Search Expenses Can Be Tax Deductible
Summertime is the season that often leads to major life decisions, such as buying a home, moving or a job change. If you are looking for a new job that is in the same line of work, you may be able to deduct some of your job-hunting expenses on your federal income tax return.
To qualify for a deduction, your expenses must be spent on a job search in your current occupation. You may not deduct expenses you incur while looking for a job in a new occupation. The following are examples of deductible expenses:
A. Employment and outplacement agency fees you pay while looking for a job in your present occupation. If your employer pays you back in a later year for employment agency fees, you must include the amount you received, up to the amount of your tax benefit in the earlier year, in your gross income.
B. Fees for career counseling
C.Resume preparation costs, such as typing, printing and mailing.
D. If you travel to look for a new job in your present occupation, you may be able to deduct travel expenses to and from the area to which you traveled. You can only deduct the travel expenses if the trip is primarily to look for a new job. The amount of time you spend on personal activity unrelated to your job search compared to the amount of time you spend looking for work is important in determining whether the trip is primarily personal or is primarily to look for a new job. Thus, it is advisable to keep a contemporaneous log of your activities during the trip, as well as receipts for your expenses.
You cannot deduct your job search expenses if there was a substantial break between the end of your last job and the time you began looking for a new one or if you are looking for a job for the first time.
To deduct job search expenses, you must itemize your deductions. If you use the standard deduction, you get no benefits from job search expenses. The deduction is also part of your miscellaneous itemized deductions, which are allowed only to the extent they exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income. So, depending upon whether you have other miscellaneous deductions, the job search expenses may be further limited. Miscellaneous itemized deductions are not allowed at all if you are taxed by the alternative minimum tax (AMT), so to the extent you are taxed by the AMT you receive no benefit from job-seeking expenses.
If you have questions related to job-seeking expenses or how they fit into your taxes, please give this office a call.
Important Times to Seek Assistance
Waiting for your regular appointment to discuss current tax-related issues can create problems or cause you to miss out on beneficial options that need to be timely exercised before year-end. Generally, you should call this office any time you have a substantial change in taxable income or deductions. By doing so, we can advise you about how to optimize your tax liability, avoid or minimize penalties, estimate and pre-pay required taxes, document deductions, and examine and explore tax options. You should call this office if you or your spouse:
Receive a large employee bonus or award
Become unemployed
Change employment\
Take an unplanned withdrawal from an IRA or other pension plan
Retire or are contemplating retirement
Exercise an employee stock option
Have significant stock gains or losses
Get married
Separate from or divorce your spouse
Sell or exchange a property or business
Experience the death of a spouse during the year
Turn 70½ during the year
Increase your family size through birth or adoption of a child
Start a business or acquire a rental property
Receive a substantial lawsuit settlement or award
Get lucky at a casino, lotto, or game show and receive a W-2G
Plan to donate property worth $5,000 ($500 if a vehicle) or more to a charity\
Plan to gift more than $13,000 to any one individual during the year
In addition, you should call whenever you receive a notice from the government related to your tax return. You should never respond to a notice without first checking with this office.
Renting Your Vacation Home
If you own a home in a vacation locale – whether it is your primary residence or a vacation home – and are considering renting it out to others, there are complicated tax rules, referred to as the “vacation home rental rules,” that you need to be aware of.
Generally, the tax code breaks a “vacation rental” into three categories, each with a different treatment for income and expenses:
1. Rented Less Than 15 Days – If you rent your home for less than 15 days during the tax year, the tax code says that you do not need to report the income and you can still deduct 100% of the property taxes and qualified mortgage interest as an itemized deduction. Yes, you heard me correctly: the government is actually allowing you to ignore the income, regardless of the amount, if you rent the home for less than 15 days during the year. This rule offers some opportunities for substantial tax-free income, especially for more expensive homes. Here are some examples:
2. Rental as a film location – typically, film production companies will pay substantial amounts (thousands per day) for the short-term use of homes as movie sets. Individuals with unique properties can register with a local film location company.
3. Home in a vacation locale – individuals with homes in a popular tourist or vacation locales can rent their homes out to vacationers in their area while they are on vacation themselves.
4. Home in the area of a special event – when a one-time or special event such as a major sports event (think the Super Bowl) or convention comes to town, hotel rooms may be scarce or even fill up. Homeowners in these locations may want to rent their homes short-term during the activity while getting out of town to avoid the crowds.
However, be careful; if the rental goes over 14 days, the income is no longer tax-free. When calculating the number of days, the definition of a day is generally “the 24-hour period” for which a day's rental would be paid. Thus, a person using a dwelling unit from Saturday afternoon through the following Saturday morning would generally be treated as having used the unit for seven days even though the person was on the premises on eight calendar days.
5. Rented 15 Days or More – When the home is rented 15 days or more, the income must be reported. However the tax treatment depends upon how many days you used the home personally:
6. Personal Use More Than 10% of the Rental Days – If your personal use of the home totals more than 10% of the rental days, the expenses are allocated according to personal versus rental days. In figuring your rental profit, the expenses must be deducted in the following order: allocated taxes and interest first, then maintenance and other cash expenses, and, finally, depreciation. However, the net result is limited to zero; i.e., a loss cannot be claimed.
7. Personal Use 10% or Less of the Rental Days – If your personal use of the home totals 10% or less of the rental days, the expenses are allocated according to personal versus rental days in the same manner as when the personal use exceeds 10% except that a loss is allowed, but the loss cannot include any amount attributed to depreciation.
When figuring the personal use days, include days used by an owner, co-owner, or family member of the owner/co-owner and days used under a reciprocal arrangement. However, you can exclude “fix-up” days, which are days spent repairing and maintaining the property.
A number of other rules apply to special situations not covered here. If you have questions about how the vacation rental rules will apply to your unique circumstances, please give this office a call.
Frank’s Tax and Business Service
120 York Rd
Kings Mountain, NC28086-3151
(704) 739-4039 Fax: (704) 739-3934
e-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: File Your Return Online
Franklin Katz, ATP, PA, PB,
If your tax deductions normally fall short of itemizing your deductions or even if you are able to itemize, but only marginally, you may benefit from using the “bunching” strategy.
The tax code allows most taxpayers to utilize the standard deduction or itemize their deductions if that provides a greater benefit. As a rule, most taxpayers just wait until tax time to add everything up and then use the higher of the standard deduction or their itemized deductions.
If you want to be more proactive, you can time the payments of tax-deductible items to maximize your itemized deductions in one year and take the standard deduction in the next.
For the most part, itemized deductions include medical expenses, property taxes, state and local income (or sales) taxes, home mortgage and investment interest, charitable deductions, unreimbursed job-related expenses, and casualty losses. The “bunching strategy” is more commonly associated with medical expenses, tax payments and charitable deductions, although there are circumstances in which the other deductions might come into play. There are many opportunities to bunch deductions, and the following are examples of the bunching strategies most commonly used:
Medical Expenses - You contract with a dentist for your child’s braces. The dentist may offer you an up-front, lump sum payment or a payment plan. By making the lump sum payment, the entire cost is credited in the year paid, thereby dramatically increasing your medical expenses for that year. If you do not have the cash available for the up-front payment, then you can pay by credit card, which is treated as a lump-sum payment for tax purposes. If you use a credit card, you must realize that the credit card interest is not deductible, and you need to determine if incurring the interest is worth the increased tax deduction. Another important issue with medical deductions is that only the amount of the total medical expenses that exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) is actually deductible. If you are caught by the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), then only the amount that exceeds 10% of your AGI is actually deductible. So, there is no tax benefit in bunching medical deductions if the total is less than 7.5% of your AGI (10% if taxed by the AMT).
If the current year is an abnormally high-income year, you may, where possible, wish to put off making medical expense payments until the subsequent year when the 7.5% (10%) threshold is less.
Special Note: Beginning in 2013, the medical income threshold increases from 7.5% to 10% for taxpayers under the age of 65, so that change needs to be factored into your planning.
Taxes - Property taxes on real estate are generally billed annually at mid-year, and most locales allow the tax bill to be paid in semi-annual or quarterly installments. Thus, you have the option of paying it all at once or paying in installments. This provides the opportunity to bunch the tax payments by paying one semi-annual installment or two quarterly installments and a full year’s tax liability in one year and only paying one semi-annual installment or two quarterly installments in the other year. In doing so, you are able to deduct 1-½ year’s taxes in one year and 50% of a year’s taxes in the other. If you are thinking of making the property tax payments late as a way to accomplish bunching, you should be cautious. The late payment penalty will probably wipe out any potential tax savings.
If you reside in a state that has state income tax, the state income tax paid or withheld during the year is deductible as a federal itemized deduction. So, for instance, if you are paying state estimated tax in quarterly installments, the fourth-quarter estimate is generally due in January of the subsequent year. This gives you the opportunity to either make that payment before December 31st, and be able to deduct the payment on the current year’s return, or pay it in January before the January due date and use it as a deduction in the subsequent year.
A word of caution about the itemized deduction for taxes! Taxes are only deductible for regular tax purposes. So, to the extent you are taxed by the AMT, you derive no benefits from the itemized deduction for taxes.
Charitable Contributions – Charitable contributions are a nice fit for “bunching” because they are entirely payable at the taxpayer’s discretion. For example, if you normally tithe at your church, you could make your normal contributions during the year and then prepay the entire subsequent year’s tithing in a lump sum in December of the current year, thereby doubling up on the church contribution one year and having no deduction for charity in the other year. Normally, charities are very active with their solicitations during the holiday season, giving you the opportunity to make the contributions at the end of the current year or simply wait a short time and make them after the end of the year.
If you think a “bunching” strategy might benefit you, please call this office to discuss the issue and set up an appointment for some in-depth strategizing.
Job Search Expenses Can Be Tax Deductible
Summertime is the season that often leads to major life decisions, such as buying a home, moving or a job change. If you are looking for a new job that is in the same line of work, you may be able to deduct some of your job-hunting expenses on your federal income tax return.
To qualify for a deduction, your expenses must be spent on a job search in your current occupation. You may not deduct expenses you incur while looking for a job in a new occupation. The following are examples of deductible expenses:
A. Employment and outplacement agency fees you pay while looking for a job in your present occupation. If your employer pays you back in a later year for employment agency fees, you must include the amount you received, up to the amount of your tax benefit in the earlier year, in your gross income.
B. Fees for career counseling
C.Resume preparation costs, such as typing, printing and mailing.
D. If you travel to look for a new job in your present occupation, you may be able to deduct travel expenses to and from the area to which you traveled. You can only deduct the travel expenses if the trip is primarily to look for a new job. The amount of time you spend on personal activity unrelated to your job search compared to the amount of time you spend looking for work is important in determining whether the trip is primarily personal or is primarily to look for a new job. Thus, it is advisable to keep a contemporaneous log of your activities during the trip, as well as receipts for your expenses.
You cannot deduct your job search expenses if there was a substantial break between the end of your last job and the time you began looking for a new one or if you are looking for a job for the first time.
To deduct job search expenses, you must itemize your deductions. If you use the standard deduction, you get no benefits from job search expenses. The deduction is also part of your miscellaneous itemized deductions, which are allowed only to the extent they exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income. So, depending upon whether you have other miscellaneous deductions, the job search expenses may be further limited. Miscellaneous itemized deductions are not allowed at all if you are taxed by the alternative minimum tax (AMT), so to the extent you are taxed by the AMT you receive no benefit from job-seeking expenses.
If you have questions related to job-seeking expenses or how they fit into your taxes, please give this office a call.
Important Times to Seek Assistance
Waiting for your regular appointment to discuss current tax-related issues can create problems or cause you to miss out on beneficial options that need to be timely exercised before year-end. Generally, you should call this office any time you have a substantial change in taxable income or deductions. By doing so, we can advise you about how to optimize your tax liability, avoid or minimize penalties, estimate and pre-pay required taxes, document deductions, and examine and explore tax options. You should call this office if you or your spouse:
Receive a large employee bonus or award
Become unemployed
Change employment\
Take an unplanned withdrawal from an IRA or other pension plan
Retire or are contemplating retirement
Exercise an employee stock option
Have significant stock gains or losses
Get married
Separate from or divorce your spouse
Sell or exchange a property or business
Experience the death of a spouse during the year
Turn 70½ during the year
Increase your family size through birth or adoption of a child
Start a business or acquire a rental property
Receive a substantial lawsuit settlement or award
Get lucky at a casino, lotto, or game show and receive a W-2G
Plan to donate property worth $5,000 ($500 if a vehicle) or more to a charity\
Plan to gift more than $13,000 to any one individual during the year
In addition, you should call whenever you receive a notice from the government related to your tax return. You should never respond to a notice without first checking with this office.
Renting Your Vacation Home
If you own a home in a vacation locale – whether it is your primary residence or a vacation home – and are considering renting it out to others, there are complicated tax rules, referred to as the “vacation home rental rules,” that you need to be aware of.
Generally, the tax code breaks a “vacation rental” into three categories, each with a different treatment for income and expenses:
1. Rented Less Than 15 Days – If you rent your home for less than 15 days during the tax year, the tax code says that you do not need to report the income and you can still deduct 100% of the property taxes and qualified mortgage interest as an itemized deduction. Yes, you heard me correctly: the government is actually allowing you to ignore the income, regardless of the amount, if you rent the home for less than 15 days during the year. This rule offers some opportunities for substantial tax-free income, especially for more expensive homes. Here are some examples:
2. Rental as a film location – typically, film production companies will pay substantial amounts (thousands per day) for the short-term use of homes as movie sets. Individuals with unique properties can register with a local film location company.
3. Home in a vacation locale – individuals with homes in a popular tourist or vacation locales can rent their homes out to vacationers in their area while they are on vacation themselves.
4. Home in the area of a special event – when a one-time or special event such as a major sports event (think the Super Bowl) or convention comes to town, hotel rooms may be scarce or even fill up. Homeowners in these locations may want to rent their homes short-term during the activity while getting out of town to avoid the crowds.
However, be careful; if the rental goes over 14 days, the income is no longer tax-free. When calculating the number of days, the definition of a day is generally “the 24-hour period” for which a day's rental would be paid. Thus, a person using a dwelling unit from Saturday afternoon through the following Saturday morning would generally be treated as having used the unit for seven days even though the person was on the premises on eight calendar days.
5. Rented 15 Days or More – When the home is rented 15 days or more, the income must be reported. However the tax treatment depends upon how many days you used the home personally:
6. Personal Use More Than 10% of the Rental Days – If your personal use of the home totals more than 10% of the rental days, the expenses are allocated according to personal versus rental days. In figuring your rental profit, the expenses must be deducted in the following order: allocated taxes and interest first, then maintenance and other cash expenses, and, finally, depreciation. However, the net result is limited to zero; i.e., a loss cannot be claimed.
7. Personal Use 10% or Less of the Rental Days – If your personal use of the home totals 10% or less of the rental days, the expenses are allocated according to personal versus rental days in the same manner as when the personal use exceeds 10% except that a loss is allowed, but the loss cannot include any amount attributed to depreciation.
When figuring the personal use days, include days used by an owner, co-owner, or family member of the owner/co-owner and days used under a reciprocal arrangement. However, you can exclude “fix-up” days, which are days spent repairing and maintaining the property.
A number of other rules apply to special situations not covered here. If you have questions about how the vacation rental rules will apply to your unique circumstances, please give this office a call.
Frank’s Tax and Business Service
120 York Rd
Kings Mountain, NC28086-3151
(704) 739-4039 Fax: (704) 739-3934
e-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: File Your Return Online
Franklin Katz, ATP, PA, PB,
Providing Professional Accounting, Bookkeeping,
Payroll and Income Tax Preparation Services
*Circular 230 Disclaimer: To ensure compliance with Treasury Regulations governing written tax advice, please be advised that any tax advice included in this communication, including attachments, is not intended, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding any federal tax penalty or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending any transaction or matter to another person.
Confidentially Notice: This email message is CONFIDENTIAL and is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee of this message, you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the contents of this message or any information contained herein or any attachment thereof. If you have received this message in error and are not the intended addressee, please advise the sender by reply email and delete this message immediately.
*The IRS does not endorse any particular individual tax preparer. For more information on tax return preparers go to IRS.gov
SEE Part 2
.
Payroll and Income Tax Preparation Services
*Circular 230 Disclaimer: To ensure compliance with Treasury Regulations governing written tax advice, please be advised that any tax advice included in this communication, including attachments, is not intended, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding any federal tax penalty or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending any transaction or matter to another person.
Confidentially Notice: This email message is CONFIDENTIAL and is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee of this message, you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the contents of this message or any information contained herein or any attachment thereof. If you have received this message in error and are not the intended addressee, please advise the sender by reply email and delete this message immediately.
*The IRS does not endorse any particular individual tax preparer. For more information on tax return preparers go to IRS.gov
SEE Part 2
.