Health Care

5 Things You Should Know About Health Insurance

In a few months, it’s going to become mandatory for people who have no insurance coverage to either purchase something for themselves and their families or pay a penalty, what the federal government calls a surcharge and what the Supreme Court calls a tax. Either way, something’s coming, and I feel you should know some truths about it all. Here’s 5 things you should definitely know.

1. Yes, you will owe something to the federal government if you don’t buy health insurance, but just how much? It’s not as bad as you might believe. Confirmed with the office of Senator Charles Schumer on New York, if you’re single it will cost you around $90 a year. If you’re married or filing as a family the amount is less than $300. To put both of those in perspective, you’ll pay more in taxes because of your cellphone and cable TV.

2. A major benefit of the health care plan is that you can’t be turned down for pre-existing conditions anymore. This is probably the biggest benefit of the health care plan because it was prohibitive against pregnant women and anyone who might have even a relatively simple disease like diabetes from switching jobs because they might lose coverage for upwards of 6 to 12 months, or a horrible disease like cancer that a family member might have and automatically be disqualified if you changed jobs.

3. How it’s going to work is that insurance companies already in your area will put together plans based on federal guidelines that will give you basic coverage for emergency services and inpatient coverage. There will be multiple levels, anywhere from 2 to 5 different plans for most insurances, so you can somewhat tailor what you want.

4. There’s nothing saying you have to purchase a federally backed health plan. If you’re a small business you should look into coverage through a local chamber of commerce as they often can provide lower group rates and more covered services based on having multiple participants in the plan.

5. If you buy your own health insurance, you actually get to write it off your taxes. That and any other medical expenses, as long as you keep all of your receipts. That means you just lowered your out of pocket costs for what is a very important investment in yours and your family’s health protection.
 

Tax Preparation

Working With The IRS On Tax Liabilities

Do you owe the IRS tax money? Is it kind of high? Are you scared and worried because you’re unsure how you’re going to pay them because you already have so many other bills?

You’re not alone, but here’s a reality. Most of us think of the IRS as this almighty bully looking to take us down. Like most governmental agencies though, they’re not really like that. As a matter of fact, the majority of people you talk to at the IRS are willing to work with you, no matter what your situation is, to help you pay your bills. That is, if you’ve at least filed your tax return, whether you actually paid them or not.

Of course your first step is to make sure everything’s correct. You should either run your taxes through an accountant, a tax service, or a tax attorney. On that last one, only go to an attorney if you think you’re going to owe $10,000 or more; otherwise it’s not really worth it.

You’ve probably received a letter in the mail from the IRS, registered or not, to get the process started. Your first step is to pick up the phone and call them. Have your courage ready; not that you necessarily need it but what happens sometimes is you could be on hold for longer than 30 minutes. Many people will find a way to talk themselves out of staying on the line and waiting for someone; that’s fear talking and you have to shut it out. If you call again, the process starts all over.

Once you get someone on the phone you’ll have to confirm the amount you owe. If you believe your balance should be different they will put a hold on your account of 14 to 30 days and do a full review. If you have any extra information for them they’ll ask you to send it to them.

If you know you actually owe the amount requested they’ll ask you if you want to set up a payment arrangement with them. If you have circumstances that make it hard for you to make big payments they’ll work with you on smaller payments.

The caveat here is twofold.

One, they’ll tell you that you have to make sure you pay all the taxes for the previous year so that you don’t have the same thing happen the next year. You might find that hard to do but try to keep up. They will work with you again, but they won’t tell you that initially. As long as your overall outstanding balance stays below $25,000, you’ll probably be okay as long as you prove you’re trying.

Two, you’ll continue building up interests and penalties. Both are actually much lower than any credit cards you’d ever have, but it’ll make them set up a payment so that you’re actually paying down the balance instead of allowing it to increase. Still, don’t make an agreement for an amount that you know you can’t pay; that’ll look bad on your record if you miss a later payment.

As with most things, the fear goes away when you make that first call. People do have jobs to do but most of them understand that people have financial struggles. It’s always better to face these types of things upfront.
 

Tax Preparation

Why Business Write-Offs Help You When It Comes To Taxes

In our last post on business tax write-offs, we gave 5 examples of things you can write off, along with providing links to other things you can write off. As cool as this might seem, you might wonder why it’s of benefit to do such a thing, and whether it can help anyone else who might not officially be a business.

It’s acknowledged by the federal government that businesses have expenses they have to deal with. From office supplies to office equipment to even purchasing vehicles in some cases, it can be fairly expensive to run a business.

We all hope to run our business as some kind of profit, but that’s not always the case. There are times when your expenses outweigh what you made, or times when you didn’t make enough to have to make a tax payment.

However, if you reported something like $10,000 as income, you’d have to pay something on that unless you could show that you had to pay something to try to keep the business going. So you have things like mileage, depreciation on office equipment, advertising costs, and even buying new stuff here and there that counts as write offs, as long as they impacted your business in some fashion.

Much of it counts as a one-to-one event. So if you paid $500 for a computer, you get to write off $500 on your taxes. That’s a great benefit because the government is trying to encourage you to do anything you can to improve your business. Everything doesn’t go that way though. Meal costs, whether you’re entertaining or are eating meals while out of town on business, only get you a 50% discount. Still, it all adds up.

Of course, not everything will be counted at 100%, even though I pulled out meals. If you have a home office you only get to write off a portion of that for business based on the square footage of your home and your office. If you pay for maid service or for someone to cut your lawn, the same type of thing applies.

It can get really complicated, and most people have no real idea of all the types of things they can write off to bring their tax liability down. That’s why it’s a good thing to have a tax accountant to help you figure it all out.

By the way, there’s no shame in having your business being run at a loss; that’s how many large corporations end up getting refunds every year, even those making billions. It’s all in keeping great records and finding ways to build up the expenses at the same time you’re increasing your revenue. A good accountant will help you do all of that.
 

Tax Preparation

5 More Things You Can Write Off On Your Taxes

We’ve had two other articles here on expenses you can deduct from your taxes if you’re a business. The first was titled 5 Items You Can Deduct From Your Taxes. The second was called Trip Expenses You Can Deduct For Your Business.

We could go on and on but we like spacing things out some; after all, we don’t want to overwhelm anyone all at once. With that, here are 5 more things you can write off that we haven’t covered yet.

1. Education. If you need continual education to keep a certification, or if you need to go to any types of classes where you’re learning something you can apply to your business, you can deduct those expenses. This includes joining networking groups because often many of them have educational programs you can partake of.

2. Costs of goods sold. Anything you have to buy to create something for a client, to ship something to a client, or in representing your client in any way that the client doesn’t immediately reimburse you back for you can write off. For instance, the client might reimburse you for sales portfolios you create but you might feel silly billing them for the paper or copying charges. If you don’t bill that to them, but if you do you can write things like that off.

3. Services you hire that help you concentrate on your business. If you hire an accountant you can write that off. If you pay for internet services for your business you can write that off. If you want the landscape around your office to look good you can write that off. Even maid services if you work from home can be written off in some fashion. Of course it’s best to talk to an accountant to find out what percentage of it you can take for some of these and other things.

4. Advertising. Anything you spend on advertising, whether you pay someone else to do it or you do it yourself, is allowable. Of course if you’re advertising on Twitter and handling it yourself you can’t write that off, but if you’re paying for a service that sends out occasional tweets promoting your business you get to write that off.

5. Clothing. Of course this one is within reason, but there are clothing items you can write off if they’re part of your business. For instance, lawyers can write off suits and shoes. Plumbers can write off the costs of their uniforms. If you’re on the road and you need to buy new clothes because your baggage got lost and you can’t get reimbursed by anyone, you can write that off, although the airlines might pay you back for some of that. However, if you’re trying to write off a $500 pair of sunglasses… you’ll want to talk to your accountant about that.
 

Finances

3 Housing Upgrades That Could Save And Make You Money

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Every year there are a lot of people selling their homes. Too many of them don’t end up getting what they feel their house is worth. Some have had significant upgrades done to their homes and yet those things don’t seem to matter when they go to sell their homes. Not only that but the money that was laid out doesn’t equate into much more than aesthetics for the homeowner; that’s nice but it’s not enough.

Homes that sell better offer things such as more space, a specialty item like a pool, or upgrades that have been performed that not only protects the house but helps to save money on either utilities or expensive repairs down the line. The suggestions made here will help with the latter; you’re on your own with the pool.

1. Roofing. Homes that have upgraded or repaired a roof within 5 years sell very well. Home buyers know that those are homes that won’t have to worry about leakage, which can damage so many things and can be hard to track. If a new homeowner has to worry about spending an extra $10,000 – $30,000 on a roof repair sometime soon, it encourages them to look elsewhere.

Not only will you get the same benefit while you’re living in the home but it’s possible that you can tie it in with upgrading your insulation while you’re at it. Some states like New York have arrangements with local organizations that will offer free inspections and give you a recommendation for upgraded insulation that will save you a lot of money and offer you a lot of comfort all year round. Imagine being able to tell a prospective buyer that their energy costs will be half of what their neighbors are paying.

2. Windows. A survey came out that had a surprising answer; windows are something many potential homeowners have at the top of their list. It’s not that they’re looking for pretty windows but energy efficient windows, windows that won’t leak air out and that offer protection from the sun’s heat during the day. Any home that heats up drastically in the evening sun also lets out a lot of heat if you have to keep your furnace running all the time.

With that said it has to be mentioned that it’s sometimes hard to find a windows installer you can trust. Estimates can sometimes range from a couple thousand to more than $40,000 for windows; ouch! When one of my clients moved into their new house they were offered a free evaluation that took 4 hours and received an estimate of $36,000. Two weeks later, after not jumping at the offer, the new price was $9,000. Even if that’s a great price would you trust someone who did that?

Still, it’s worth looking into, and the combination of better windows with the changes in roofing and insulation can offer dramatic savings in utility costs.

3. Basement. Many people believe that having a damp basement isn’t such a big deal, but it is. Basement flooding accounts for more damage than any other type of damage within a house outside of a disaster and some insurance won’t cover the costs of repairs or replacement of items down there. You can get mold in basements that will only cost a lot of money to get rid of, but you can be forced out of your house by the authorities and have to live in a hotel for awhile.

A well sealed basement can save both money and protect your health. It also gives you the option of furnishing your basement in some fashion or, when you sell it, offers the buyer the possibility of using the expanded space. That extra space can add thousands of dollars to the sale price of a home while offering you more options such as a media room or workout space.
 

Accounting & Financial Advice from the Syracuse NY area