Before it's too late, now is the opportunity to cut your next tax payment by taking advantage of year-end measures that can help you save money.
Whether you donate to a nonprofit organization, put money into your retirement account, or look into helpful tax deductions, taking these tiny efforts now can make a large difference when it comes time to file your taxes. The filing deadline for taxes owed for 2022 is April 18th, 2023.
The following is a list of five tax-related decisions that you should make before the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve.
1) Key Points
- Reconsider and review your withholding tax deduction.
- Make a right and tax-deductible charitable contribution.
- Maximize your 401(k) deduction.
- Utilize your FSA to the maximum extent.
- Harvest your expected loss.
- Consider wash sale rules.
- Defer your income to reduce tax.
- Withdraw required minimum distribution.
- Review and consider estate planning.
2) Lookback your withholding tax
If you've experienced any significant changes in your career or personal life, such as a raise in salary, a shift in your marital status, the birth of a child, or the purchase of a home, it's vital that you review your current tax withholding. To ensure that the appropriate amount of taxes are being withheld from your paycheck, it is a good idea to review your withholding.
If you don't withhold enough money from your paychecks, you could end up with a tax charge after filing your returns. Altering your tax situation to get more money in each paycheck may be preferable if you withhold too much and end up getting a huge tax refund.
The IRS provides a self-service tool called the tax withholding estimator that can help you determine if you have withheld enough money from your paycheck. To get started, you'll need to have access to your most recent pay stub and tax return.
Read SURE FINANCIALS AND TAX SERVICES LLC: Taxpayers should check their federal withholding to decide if they need to give their employer a new W-4 (surefintaxsvs.blogspot.com) to know when you need to update your employer with new form W-4
3) Think about charitable donations.
Contributing to a charity you care about before the end of the year might have additional benefits, including lowering your taxable income.
Donations to charity are generally deductible only if you itemize your tax deductions. But to itemize, your total deductions must be higher than the standard deduction.
When filing your taxes, the IRS permits you to deduct a standard amount called the "standard deduction" regardless of your personal circumstances. As the government attempts to adjust for the biggest inflation in decades, it has been increasing standard deductions.
The standard deduction amounts for the 2022 tax year (for returns submitted in 2023) are as follows:
- $12,950 for single and married-filing-separately taxpayers
- $19,400 for head of household taxpayers
- $25,900 for married-filing-jointly or qualifying widow(er) taxpayers
However, before making a donation, verify that the charity of your choice is eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides a search tool where you may get up-to-date information about tax-exempt organizations.
To complete your search, you will need either the company name or EIN.
4) Take the benefit of 401(k) contributions.
A 401(k)-retirement account contribution deadline is typically the later of December 31 or your final paycheck of the year. A maximum of $20,500 can be contributed that year. To the maximum of $27,000, an additional $6,500 can be contributed if you are 50 or older. Limits do not apply to employer contributions. There is a cap of $61,000 for 2022 on the sum of your and your employer's contributions.
You need to take action immediately because December will bring your last paycheck of the year. Increasing your retirement contributions typically requires a conversation with your company's human resources division. To make sure you haven't already reached the annual contribution limit, you should know how much you contributed this year.
5 ) Take a look at your Flexible Spending Account (FSA).
Use IT or Lose IT. A Flexible Spending Account (also known as a flexible spending arrangement) is a special account you put money into that you use to pay for certain out-of-pocket health care costs. FSAs are limited to $2,850 per year per employer. If you’re married, your spouse can put up to $2,850 in an FSA with their employer. You generally must use the money in an FSA within the plan year. But your employer may offer one of 2 options:(1) It can provide a "grace period" of up to 2 ½ extra months to use the money in your FSA.(2) It can allow you to carry over up to $570 per year to use in the following year. As per https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-21-15.pdf this rule temporarily is allowing carry the entire unused amount to next year.
6 ) Harvest your loss.
Tax loss harvesting is when you sell some investments at a loss to offset gains you’ve realized by selling other stocks at a profit. The result is that you only pay taxes on your net profit, or the amount you’ve gained minus the amount you lost, thereby reducing your tax bill. Single filers and married couples filing jointly can deduct up to $3,000 in realized losses from ordinary income.
Select this course of action if you are confident that your investment will not rise in value in the near future.
7 ) Keep in mind the wash sale rules
You can’t, for instance, sell a stock to realize a loss and minimize your tax burden—and then rebuy that exact same stock, or even one that’s nearly identical. This strategy is referred to as a wash sale. A wash sale occurs when you sell securities at a loss and within 30 days before or after the sale buy “substantially” identical securities, or acquire a contract or option to do so. The wash sale rule does not, however, preclude purchasing securities in the same industry. For example, you can sell shares of Pfizer and replace them with shares of Merck.
8 ) Defer your income
By deferring ( postponing ) income to next year, you may be able to minimize your current income tax liability, if your future year tax rate is low. Here are ways you can achieve this strategy
(1) Cash method of accounting: First, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) widened the class of companies eligible to adopt the cash method of accounting. You still have time to put this plan into action by switching to the cash method automatically before the tax return's due date (including any extensions). Exactly who has the authority to implement this change? As long as inventory is not a significant contributor to income, sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S companies can switch to the cash method of accounting regardless of their average annual gross receipts. A switch to the cash method is made automatically for C corporations (or partnerships with a C corporation partner) with average annual gross receipts of $25 million or less for the past three taxable years.
(2) Postpone Year-End Billing: If you're using the cash approach, put off billing your customers until after the end of the year.
(3) Installment sales: A sale is the transfer of ownership of an item. As long as at least one payment is received in the year after the sale, income recognition is typically deferred under the installment method until the gain is realized. If you think you would sell property before the end of 2022 and it would be financially beneficial to do so, you might want to explore selling the property and reporting the gain under the installment method so that any payments (and tax) can be postponed until 2023 or later.
(4) Interest and Dividend: Treasury securities and bank CDs with maturities of one year or less earn interest, but that interest is not considered taxable income until it is actually received. Investing in bonds or certificates that won't mature until next year is one way to put off collecting interest money. The 2022 tax year won't apply to dividends unless you have constructive receipt of them before December 31. (exceptions may apply if you have control over when dividends are paid to you.)
9 ) Be cognizant about RMD ( Required Minimum Distribution).
Required minimum distributions (RMDs) must be taken from traditional IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans after the account holder reaches age 72 (exceptions may apply if the account holder is still actively employed by the plan's sponsor). Withdraw the RMD by December 31st, the end of the tax year for most people. The penalty for not doing so is steep: fifty percent of the amount you were supposed to disperse but didn't. Beneficiaries are typically expected to take annual payments from inherited retirement accounts (and under the 10-year rule), with some exceptions for surviving spouses. Refer to SURE FINANCIALS AND TAX SERVICES LLC: Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) (surefintaxsvs.blogspot.com) for more information.
10 ) Make an estate plan or revisit estate planning.
It's a good idea to sit down with a financial advisor and go over your estate plans towards the end of the year to see if there are any ways you can save money on taxes or improve upon your current approach. The current $12.06 million lifetime gift and estate tax exception, in effect until 2026, may be a topic of conversation. You might also talk about whether or not it makes sense to set up a trust and fund it before the end of the year so as to take advantage of the tax benefits offered by the current legislation.
Contact Surya Padhi at Sure Financials for any question and clarification. Surya Padhi is an expert who keeps current on tax law changes as well as a member of the National Association of Tax Professionals National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) and New Homepage - National Association of Enrolled Agents (naea.org). Visit Welcome | Sure Financials & Tax Services, LLC (surefintaxsvs.com) for more information and contact us by calling +1 908.300.9193.