Tax returns are underrated financial planning tools
Tax time provides an excellent opportunity to create or update a financial strategy. By examining your tax returns, you can glean information that can help you build a financial plan.
Tax Planning
How CPAs can help clients combining households during the pandemic
CPAs share their thoughts on how to help clients through changes in households.
Senate shows bipartisan support for mobile workforce tax legislation
The Senate voted to make room in the FY 2021 budget resolution for mobile workforce legislation. Details of the budget still must be negotiated, but the vote creates the possibility that mobile workforce legislation, which the AICPA strongly supports, will be enacted this year.
Help clients make the most of 2020 charitable giving
Mike Landsberg, CPA/PFS, discusses what he’s seeing in terms of charitable giving this year, how the CARES Act has affected giving, and how clients can use giving to save on taxes while contributing to causes that matter to them.
New Form W-4 slow to gain traction with taxpayers
Only 26% of taxpayers have changed their withholding since Form W-4 was revised in 2019, an AICPA survey found.
The COVID-19 era: Planning for the year end and beyond
Tax-savvy and risk-averse strategies come to the fore.
Ask the expert: Tax planning
Karla D’Alleva Valas leads Fidelity Charitable’s adviser success strategy focused on CPAs who prioritize charitable planning as integral to their practice. Previously, she led the Complex Asset Group, a team of attorneys working with CPAs to facilitate charitable donations of appreciated private company stock and other nonpublic assets.
It’s a tough year for year-end tax planning
Advisers face the difficult task of helping clients plan for next year without knowing for certain which party will control the Senate.
Time to consider a Roth conversion
A qualified rollover contribution to a Roth IRA or an in-plan rollover to a designated Roth account, known as a Roth conversion, can be attractive for CPA advisers' clients because it provides a higher net present value of cash flow from their retirement savings, benefiting themselves or their beneficiaries.
How to help a client retiring abroad think about taxes
This article discusses how CPAs can help their clients navigate the tax and financial planning complications of retiring overseas.
Ask the expert: Investing with an eye on taxes
Duncan Gates is Avantax’s Strategist–TSI Advisor Experience. In this role, he is responsible for providing education on tax-related topics and concepts, advisor training, and distribution of the Tax-Smart Investing platform.
Guidance on how to take CARES Act distributions from qualified plans
The IRS released guidance on how taxpayers can take coronavirus-related distributions from qualified retirement plans as authorized by the CARES Act.
Why Roth conversions still make sense after the SECURE Act
Changes brought on by the SECURE act have added new wrinkles to the planning process that must be considered by IRA owners and CPA financial planners.
Look before you leap into a 529 plan
Circumspection is called for in funding students’ higher education.
Planning for Medicare taxes, premiums, and surcharges
Don’t neglect these basic health care considerations in clients’ retirement planning.
Optimizing residential real estate deductions
The new Sec. 199A safe harbor and tangible property regulations offer ways for landlords to reduce taxable income from rentals.
Avoid tax traps with a timely appraisal
New basis-consistency requirements make defensible valuations even more important.
Maximizing the higher education tax credits
A counterintuitive strategy can save taxes by including otherwise excludable scholarships in gross income.
How tax reform is changing clients’ financial plans
CPA financial planners named charitable giving, business structure and estate plans as the areas of clients’ financial plans they have had to adjust most frequently following the passage of the TCJA, according to a recent survey.
Planning ideas from Form 1040 (and beyond)
Learn about a few of the many valuable planning opportunities you can uncover when reviewing a client’s tax forms.
