The IRS has identified 21 states that made special payments to taxpayers in 2022. After a review of those special payments, the IRS has determined that taxpayers in many states will not need to report those payments on their 2022 federal income tax returns. Special payments in four of those states should be treated as refunds of state taxes paid, and taxation is determined under the general...
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Financial Resources & News
Federal Income Tax Returns Due for Most Individuals
The federal income tax filing deadline for individuals is generally Tuesday, April 18, 2023. The IRS has postponed the deadline to file federal income tax returns and make tax payments for certain New York storm victims until May 15, 2023, and to July 31, 2023, for certain Mississippi storm victims. The deadline has been postponed for disaster-area taxpayers in most of California and parts of...
Potential Long-Term Benefits of Utilizing Backdoor Roth Conversions
By: Henry VanBuskirk, CFP®, Wealth Manager “Who can it be knocking at my door?” It’s the Men at Work and Women at Work in Congress(1) with new retirement legislation, SECURE Act 2.0. While this new legislation has many positive changes, many of those changes come with added complexity to how the Traditional IRA and Roth IRA contribution limits and catch-up contribution amounts are...
Five Ways SECURE ACT 2.0 Changes the Required Minimum Distribution Rules
The SECURE 2.0 legislation included in the $1.7 trillion appropriations bill passed late last year builds on changes established by the original Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE 1.0) enacted in 2019. SECURE 2.0 includes significant changes to the rules that apply to required minimum distributions from IRAs and employer retirement plans. Here's what you need to...
Don’t Let the Regional Bank Crisis Go to Waste: Protect Your Assets
There has been a flurry of news articles on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB) coming out recently, and rightfully so. It is the largest bank to collapse since Washington Mutual failed in 2008. Silicon Valley Bank had $173 billion of customer deposits at the end of 2022 and served businesses such as Roku and Etsy. Two other banks, Silvergate (had $11.36 billion in assets) and Signature...
The Debt Ceiling and Deficit Spending
On January 19, 2023, the outstanding debt of the U.S. government reached its statutory limit, commonly called the debt ceiling. The current limit was set by Congress at about $31.4 trillion in December 2021.1 On the day the limit was reached, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen instituted well-established "extraordinary measures" to allow necessary borrowing for a limited period of time. While...
5 Ways to Provide for Grandkids That are not Related to College
By: Paul Horn, CFP®, CPWA® Senior Financial Planner Most of our clients as they get older want to begin to think of ways that they can take care of their grandchildren. Most commonly the discussion revolves around opening 529 plans and saving for college. Below are five alternatives that are worth considering if you are trying to take care of grandkids: Pay for their first car. Another large...
California Tax Update: IRS Extends Tax Relief for Storm Victims
By: Henry VanBuskirk, CFP®, Wealth Manager Our team would like to provide an update on a recent blog post discussing tax relief and the tax filing deadline for certain counties in California. The individuals in counties originally discussed in that posting will have until May 15th, 2023, to file tax returns, but some counties are automatically extending that tax filing deadline to October...
Monthly Market Update (February 2023): 3 Things You Need to Know
There was a big repricing of inflation expectations over February, as the January Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed an uptick in inflation and the January Jobs report was much stronger than expected. Here are 3 things you need to know: 2yr U.S. inflation breakevens were up +85 basis points (bps) to 3.18%, having ended January at just 2.33%. This was the second largest monthly move higher since...
REAL ID Deadline Extended Again
After years of numerous delays, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has once again extended the REAL ID enforcement deadline from May 3, 2023, until May 7, 2025.1 What is a REAL ID? A REAL ID is a type of enhanced identification card. The REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005, set minimum security standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards. Under the Act,...
A Brief Guide to Equity Compensation Types
By: Paul Horn, CFP®, CPWA® Senior Financial Planner We live in a world that admires hard workers. As we grow up, we try our best to get into the best universities, graduate with honors, and have a solid start to our careers. We dream about having a job with a big title and everything that comes with it; financial liberty, luxurious trips, more time with loved ones, experience,...
Asset Protection through Umbrella Insurance and LLCs
If you are in the minority of Americans who are contemplating purchasing another home as a rental property or already own a rental property, you are probably doing fairly well in life to be in that position. Without running the numbers on your financial situation, the main question that we hope that you have the answer to is, “What happens to me financially if someone sues me?”. If your answer...
Federal Tax Filing Season Has Started
The IRS announced that the starting date for when it would accept and process 2022 tax-year returns was Monday, January 23, 2023. Tips for making filing easier To speed refunds and help with tax filing, the IRS suggests the following: Make sure you have received Form W-2 and other earnings information, such as Form 1099, from employers and payers. The dates for furnishing such information to...
Financial Misadvise: Common mistakes and assumptions made by Financial Advisors (Part 4: Annuities)
(This is the fourth article in a four-part series. Click here to read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) By: Henry VanBuskirk, CFP®, Wealth Manager Everyone’s had that story of their friend or family member that said they got shafted by some seedy financial advisor. However, there is a huge difference between what is legal and what is ethical. The majority of these “seedy” financial advisors are...
Monthly Market Update (January): 3 Things You Need to Know
Overall, January continued the strong bounce back seen for most global assets since October even if the performance seen in the first half of the month wasn’t quite matched in the second half. It was still the best January in several years for many assets. Here are 3 things you need to know: Q4 2022 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) came in above expectations at 2.9%. The increase primarily...
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